How Not to Kill a Mockingjay
by BellaBlack98
Summary: Clove and the other Careers are brought back to life by the demented Capitol doctors for use against Katniss in the rebellion. Clove/Cato Marvel/Glimmer Katniss/Peeta Johanna/Gale first Fanfic so be nice! R&R!
1. Chapter 1

How Not to Kill a Mockingjay

**Chapter 1**

The last thing I saw as I lay dying by the cornucopia was Cato's pleading muddy blue eyes. The last sound I heard was his voice pleading me to stay with him.

I didn't. Obviously.

Blinding white lights and searing heat woke me in a sweat.

I groan. _What the fuck just happened?_

The last thing I remember were those eyes. I blink a couple more times before my eyes adjusted to the light.

I sit up ignoring the nauseating pounding in my school. I could tell that I was in some sort of hospital. _Wait… What? I'm dead! _I whip my head to my left to see a happy blonde girl with bright green eyes looking at me. The pounding on my head reached its climax. I swear I could feel my skull vibrating.

Bright blue and pink dots clouded my vision and I fell back into the pillows.

"Glimmer?" I ask the girl.

"Clove! I thought you'd _never_ wake up!"

"That's the definition of death. Speaking of, aren't you dead too?"

"No silly!"

"Oh right silly me."

"The capitol doctors brought us back for use in later games and use in the upcoming war!" She chirped brightly as if the subject were about rainbows and unicorns.

"Oh goody!" I say sarcastically.

"Well if it ain't sergeant sarcasm herself!" Marvel called from the doorway.

"I'm in hell."

"No Clove, you're in the capitol obviously."

I look over to Glimmer. "So many things to say to that." I say more to myself than to Glimmer.

I sit back up testing my head to find the pounding gone.

I slip my bare feet onto the cold tile floor and stand up. I'm in one of the flimsy paper gowns hospitals give to their patients and I feel oddly exposed.

"Here, I tried to match the clothes with your personality as best I could."

"Is that so?" I ask as Glimmer hands me a pair of jeans, a bluish green tunic and a leather jacket with enough buckles to hold back a freight train.

I walk smoothly over to the bathroom in the room and slip in.

I look into the mirror before I change my clothes. My black hair is slightly messy and my clear blue eyes are the color of the spring I used to visit up in the mountains of District Two. All of my scars are gone, except the one on my arm, where Fire Girl had pierced my arm with an arrow. Sometimes the Capitol can be sick.

It was here in the bathroom that Glimmers words truly hit me. _Upcoming war? _I think slightly panic stricken. _Why in Panem would I EVER fight with the Capitol?_ I think.

I change rapidly and walk out to find Marvel cuddling with my pillow. He had his back to me and he was in an animated conversation with Glimmer. So, I snuck up behind him and yanked my pillow from beneath his head.

There was a loud thump as his head hit the metal of the bead and he shot up with a scowl on his face.

Glimmer burst into peals of laughter as I gave him a simple smirk and walked out the room, pillow discarded on the floor.

The other two careers followed me as I came into a room with four doors. There was a couch and two armchairs surrounding a large television sitting on a bamboo table.

I walk to the couch and sit fiddling with the remote to the television and turning it on. Marvel jumped over the edge of the couch and right next to me. Glimmer sat calmly in the armchair on the other side of me.

The television immediately turned onto none other than, the Hunger Games.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

There was a shot of the pouring rain outside a cave. Then the shot zoomed into the cave. Katniss and Peeta were cuddled together sleeping.

Then the shot flicked to the all too familiar field of wheat I had refused to enter. It was pouring rain and there stood Cato. My heart flipped.

I leaned in to watch as he circled Thresh. He was the one who killed me. With a rock. How humiliating.

"You killed her!" Cato snarled.

"She gonna cut up Fire Girl. She deserved it. She gonna torture Girl who helped Rue." Thresh said.

They were both bloody and bruised. Not to mention filthy.

"You killed her! You killed Clove! I'm gonna kill you now!" Cato screamed.

There was something in his eyes that I definitely did not like. He'd gone mad. Completely and totally bonkers. Off the deep end, stark raving insane. Around the bend. He was crazy.

It felt like my heart had dropped into my stomach.

Their swords clashed as a bolt of lightning struck, the work of the game makers no doubt, and Cato's eyes flashed with anger.

I had to look away as my only friend and my killer battled each other.

I didn't look up until there was cannon fire. My head whipped up so fast I had a head rush. Thresh lay bleeding with Cato's spear sticking from his chest.

I cheered along with Glimmer and Marvel as our friend stood triumphantly over the dead boy.

Cato grabbed Thresh's pack and his own supplies and began to stumble back into the forest.

The rain slowed to a stop and Cato sobbed as he stumbled on. He tripped and fell flat on his face.

"Get up Cato." I whisper. "C'mon."

He lay there for hours upon hours on end. Marvel and Glimmer had long since retired to their rooms connected to the living room.

I didn't move until hours later when I couldn't stay awake any longer. I lie on the couch and fell into a troubled sleep.

When I woke up it was to another cannon booming. I nearly fell onto the floor. I watched as the freaky girl from District Five was lifted into the hovercraft.

"Guys! Ginger's gone!" I shout.

"She is?"

"Took her long enough." Marvel grumbles.

"Mouthful of Nightlock." I say. Both winced at the deadly berry's name.

"Ouch." Glimmer said. I nod.

"Today's the day." Marvel said taking his seat next to me. "Do or die."

I turn to the television just as Cato hears a growl.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

I let out a yelp as the mutt leaps from the bush right at Cato. My eyes widen as Cato just barely deflects the wolf's body from himself.

"Run." I whisper as Glimmer and Marvel process what's happening.

Cato does just that.

I blanch as he runs for his life. My first and only friend could be ripped apart by vicious man eating dogs at any moment.

He runs towards the Cornucopia. Fire Girl, Katniss Everdean shoots an arrow at Cato. If it weren't for his body armor it would have pierced his heart.

The pack of wolves is gaining on the three remaining tributes.

Katniss bolts towards the Cornucopia after Cato and Peeta hobbles along to catch up.

I don't pay any attention to anything but Cato. Glimmer and Marvel are silent and stone-faced as I watch.

Glimmer looks at my slightly panicked face with softness along the same lines as pity in her eyes.

I want to slap her so bad.

Peeta lets out a yelp as his leg is torn to shreds by one of the wolves. That's when Katniss makes the revelation that stops my heart.

The wolves are each of the dead tributes. I find mine easily. Clear, cold, calculating, blue eyes and silky black fur covered the dog in the lead.

Glimmer's wolf was next to mine snarling at Katniss as if it knew that Katniss was the one to kill her. Or, almost.

When Cato put Peeta in the headlock I knew he had given up. Cato knew that either way he was going to die. Whoever made the first move, Cato was in checkmate.

"No, Cato." I whisper tears filling my eyes and threatening to fall.

I feel gentle hands on my shoulders. I tear my eyes away to see Marvel and Glimmer both trying to comfort me.

I look back to the three teenagers on the screen. Peeta draws a bloody X on Cato's hand. I gasp just as the arrow enters his hand and Cato falls to the ground.

The wolves are on him in a flash. I begin to shake as I hear his screams of pain. The glow of my own eyes in the dark as my wolf claws Cato's throat burns into my eyelids.

I stay up all night long again haunted by his screams for mercy. When Katniss finally kills him, I silently thank her.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

As soon as the hovercraft picked up Cato's mangled body, the hospital becomes a whirlpool of action. Capitol doctors stream in and out of one of the doors the living room contained.

I watch numbly as the Rainbow Colored Freaks rushed around gibbering in their high-pitched capitol accents.

I vaguely remember a handful of nightlock in Katniss' hand.

Glimmer explains to me that they're trying to bring Cato back to life. I'm skeptical.

"What if it doesn't work? Like with Carson? Or Andrew? From District Four?"

"They didn't even bother with Andrew. And they're gonna try just as hard to get Cato back now that Katniss did that whole berry thing." Marvel says laying a comforting arm on my shoulders. "And Carson? They didn't manage to wake her up. They had her alive and stable but just not conscious. She had too much Jacker venom in her system to bring her to consciousness. They cut off her IV before you got your skull smashed in."

Okay, not very comforting words I have to admit, but his voice is so calming I almost believe it. Again, _almost._

I nod and allow him to lead me to my room. I go inside and sit on the bed. Marvel sits next to me with his arm still around my shoulders and Glimmer sits in the chair across from us.

Suddenly I smirk. "Can you believe it? Three weeks ago I was plotting your deaths. Now, I actually _like_ you." I say looking at the two people from District One.

Marvel smiles and Glimmer giggles. "Us too." She says. "So, you and Cato are friends?"

I nod. "I didn't have many friends back home. Correction, I had _no_ friends back home. But, guys at my school found me attractive. Cato was about the only one that respected me as a human being. Do you know how many times I had to kill people who tried to rape me? A lot." I say.

Glimmer gives me a sympathetic glance. "I know how that feels."

"People do that?" Marvel asks.

"Oh Marvel." I sigh. "So naïve."

He looks slightly offended.

I laugh. "It's common in District Two. The Peacekeepers get pretty snippety."

"_Peacekeepers _do that?" Glimmer says clearly shocked.

I nod and shrug.

That night I sleep in my own bed for the first time since I woke up from death. _Ironic._ I think.

My dreams are plagued with my own blue eyed wolf shredding Cato to pieces.

I'm frozen in terror until dawn when I finally wake up. I jump up out of my hospital bed and bound to my bathroom to change into clothes the Capitol Avoxes left me.

I have to admit, I like their taste in clothes.

I hear a soft knock on my door.

"Come on in!" I call.

Glimmer comes bounding in on what seems like a ray of sunshine.

"How are you so cheerful?" I ask brushing my hair. "One: its morning, Two: We're in the Capitol, Three: There isn't a single window in this place, Four: It feels like prison. How in Panem are you happy?"

"Because I'm alive!" She said smiling a bright smile.

I stare at her. The first thought that comes into my head I refuse to share with her. It's just too painful.

"Whatever," I mumble my eyes downcast.

"What's up?"

"Nothing!" I snap a little more viciously than I had intended. "I'm sorry." I say to her taken aback expression. "It's just, personal."

She nods. "I understand, Clove. You don't have to tell me everything."

The corners of my lips twitch upwards. "I've never had a real friend before other than Cato." I say looking at her slightly confused. "And to think I was glad you died."

"I feel loved, Clove." She says sarcastically.

I wink. "You can count on me."

We laugh when Marvel comes in. "What's so funny?"

Glimmer points at me through her fits of giggles.

"You should know me by now Marv." I say smirking.

Weeks pass and I'm getting restless. Cato still hasn't woken up yet and I'm getting worried. Even Marvel is starting to doubt.

It's around midnight, and I'm sitting on the couch in the center room, waiting. For what, I'll never know.

For several horrible seconds I see my eyes filled with hatred staring at me in the corner of the room and I hear a snarl. I blink.

And it's gone.

My heart is pounding in my chest. Marvel slips out of his room quietly. I ignore him.

He sits next to me on the couch and I can feel the closeness of the boy next to me.

"Can't sleep?" I whisper.

"Yeah. I'm guessing you can't either?"

I nod and he looks at me with something I can't read in his eyes. "Don't pity me Marvel."

"I don't pity you. Believe it or not, I actually care about you. You and Glimmer are all I have now."

"What do you mean?"

"Don't you understand?" He says suddenly angry. "None of us are going to see our families ever again! If they take us home riots will start cause' they saved us and not the other tributes. After all, what makes us so special? My mother thinks I'm dead. My father's probably ashamed of me now. My siblings have no one to play with or ask for advice now. Haven't you ever thought about it?"

Tidal waves of long suppressed memories wash over me and it's all I can do to push them back. I shut my eyes tightly.

"I don't have a family." I say so softly it was nearly inaudible.

Marvel looks taken aback but, the curiosity in his eyes is stronger than his regret. "What happened to them?" He asks.

_Why the hell not?_ I think. I take a breath to explain, and I find myself gasping.

"My father left when he found out my mother was pregnant with me. My sister was the golden child. I hated her so much. My brother was the anchor in my life. He used to sing to me and my sister when we had nightmares. He tried to protect me from training but I was forced into it by my mother. You see, Claudia, she was sweet and sensitive and the most popular girl. She would never win the Hunger Games. She was too nice. While I, was vicious and hostile and a total bitch. So mother sent me to training. Keagan trained with me to an extent. But Claudia was the apple of everyone's eye. I became sullen and silent. Keagan began to hang out with me more. He was only a couple years older than me. What we didn't know was that Mother was planning an escape from District Two, with Claudia. So one day I come home, and Mother and Claudia are gone Keagan's dead and Peacekeepers are arresting me. I managed to get myself out of prison and becoming an Avox, in exchange for being a tribute for the Seventy-forth when I was eighteen. Here I am." I say quietly.

Marvel sits in stunned silence. "So you lived in the community homes?"

"For about two days before I cleared out and lived in the old abandoned water tower. Cato and I met during biology at school and he didn't ask me on a date or make some vulgar comment. It was a nice change."

"Sounds like it." Marvel says bitterly.

"What? Jealous?" I say playfully.

"Maybe," He says smirking.

"Is that so?" I counter.

"Definitely."

I look at him confused. "What?"

Suddenly Marvel's lips were on mine. Somewhere in my confused mind I made out the single thought _Marvel is _kissing _me!_ I break the kiss. "Wait, wait, Marvel." I say shaking the cloudiness from my thoughts.

He looks slightly disappointed but very excited. "I-I I'm sorry, I-I didn't mean to."

"No, don't apologize, Marvel." I say softly. "Is that really how you felt? Why didn't you ever tell me?"

"Same reason that I'm not a victor. I didn't have the guts." He says quietly looking down.

We're silent for a few seconds before his eyes snap up to mine. "You love him don't you?" He asks obviously trying to keep the bitterness from his voice. He failed. "Cato?"

I hesitate. But, I know he's right. I nod looking away from his eyes.

"I should've known." He whispers more to himself than to me.

"I-"I begin.

He stands up and leaves the room.

I don't know how I'm supposed to feel, but as I sit here, I can't help but feel lonely. It's not a new feeling but, for some reason it's even more unbearable.

I have always been alone in my life and I've turned people down before. With Marvel, there was something different. He seemed to really and truly want to be with me. I just don't understand.

He couldn't actually _care,_ could he?

**A/N Okay so a little longer than the last couple chapters. This is probably closer to the length of chapters from now on. To answer a question I got earlier, I hope this chapter helped you to understand. So far, Marvel and Glimmer are only friends and believe me they'll get lovey later on. Also, some back-story on Clove, and a hint of Marvel too. Hang in there, and R&R!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

The next week went by rather awkwardly between Marvel and I. Glimmer was confused by the tension but had enough sense not to ask.

Marvel, Glimmer, and I sit in the central room eating a delicious meal of stew when a bright purple freak comes into the room. He's bald with jewels imbedded into his eyebrows and orange eyes. He looks at all three of us with calm dignity.

"As you know," He began with a deep voice but the same annoying capitol accent. "Cato Harrison still has not woken up yet. He needs a blood transfer and we haven't been able to find suitable donors. Although, Marvel, you have suitable blood, O positive I believe?"

Marvel looks at me before answering. "Yes."

"Would you be willing?"

Marvel again looks at me. My heart is pounding in my chest. Marvel has every right not to give Cato blood. I could think of a hundred reasons why he shouldn't.

He looks back at the doctor. "Yes, I'd be willing to."

The doctor smiled. His teeth were rainbow colored and I immediately lost my appetite. "Good, come with me."

Marvel looks back at me one last time before he leaves. Glimmer and I are staring at him in shock.

"What the hell was that?" Glimmer says.

"I have no fucking clue."

She shook her head. "Wait," She says. "Marvel's going into surgery?"

I look at her carefully controlled expression. She's either as horrible an actress as Everdean or I'm incredibly talented at reading emotions. She looks worried about him. I smile.

"Interested in Marv?"

Her blush is all I needed. I laugh. "How in Panem did you know?"

"I'm awesome." I shrug.

"This isn't funny Clove!" She said her happy carefree persona shattering and showing her hidden side. "How are you constantly joking around? Don't you know when to be serious?" She says standing up. "Don't you realize that they're watching us? Our every move is being surveyed. We're not allowed to leave these rooms! Who knows what they'll do to our families! This is the capitol Clove! They're cruel and heartless."

I look at her. I stand up to look her in the eyes. We're the same size but we both know I'm stronger and more skilled. "I'm from District Two, remember? Besides I have nothing for them to use against me. I've always been free. I can say and do whatever I want. And they can kill me. But we're too useful. Fire Girl will go insane seeing us again. Imagine. War has already begun. Even if Lover boy and his trophy girl don't realize it. They're the epicenter." I say with calmness that even scares me a little. "There's no point losing your temper until we're free. And we'll be free. I'm going to make sure of that."

Her eyes widen and they dart around waiting for Peacekeepers to burst through the doors.

Two weeks later and Marvel had come back. I am beginning to panic.

The capitol doctors allowed us to visit him finally. They left a scar on him too. Four deep red lines across his throat. I don't want to even think about which tribute mutt gave him that.

Any bets it was me?

It sure as hell wouldn't surprise me.

I spend almost all of my time by his bed. After I skipped a couple meals and stayed awake all night by his side, Marvel very literally picked me up and dragged me kicking and shouting obscenities to a meal that had popped up in the living room. He held me down while Glimmer shoved food down my throat.

To say I was angry would be the understatement of the millennium.

When he let me go I shot up from the chair snarling. I slapped Marvel across the face very hard, and stalked back to Cato's room.

An hour later they locked me in my room in an attempt to get me to sleep. I was satisfied to see a glowing red hand mark on Marvel's face.

The next day I woke up to find Cato sitting in the central room.

"Cato!" I shout.

"Hey, Clove." He says smiling. He stands up and I throw myself into his arms.

He pecks me on the cheek and I hold onto him tighter. "I thought you'd never wake up." I whisper into his chest.

"Where's the fun in that?"

I can't help but smile. I look back at him. I notice the scars on his throat. Hatred fills me. At the capitol for the Games. For the mutts. For leaving reminders of our fates. For everything. I trace them with my fingers. They're perfectly spaced. And I know it was me.

My mutt. I know it wasn't me, but I can't help but feel responsible for his torture.

"Don't look like that." He said softly lifting my chin so that I have to meet his eyes. "It wasn't you. It was the Game makers."

"Demented freaks." I spit.

He chuckled. "You could say that."

I take a step back from him. "Well, that's enough sappy romance don't you think?"

He smiles. "Good ole' Clove."

I wink. "Every day."

Glimmer and Marvel walked into the room at exactly the same time. They stopped in shock.

"I wasn't prepared for this." Glimmer says blinking. "I- never mind. Glad you're awake, Cato."

"Good morning to you too." I say smirking.

Glimmer glares at me making my smirk grow wider. "Its morning Clove. Leave me alone."

"You _never _leave_ me_ alone!" I say defensively. Cato laughs.

"Hi Cato." Marvel says stiffly.

"Thanks Marvel." He says. "You know, for the blood."

Marvel looks at me. He glances back at Cato. "My pleasure."

"Well now that you're all awake." A voice says from the back of the room. Everyone jumps around and drop into fighting stances before realizing who it was that had spoken. President Snow chuckles. "I know that you know why you are all alive. Sit down."

We do as he says immediately. After all, this man was the reason we were alive. "Good, now, there are certain things we expect from each of you." He says his snake eyes lingering on me.

I realize that I must be the rebel of the group. Lucky me.

"Next year for the Quarter Quell, previous victors will go into the arena. The arena will be a clock. At the six to seven o'clock wedge, each victor's biggest adversary comes into the arena. You four are Katniss and Peeta's enemies."

"How do you know that Peeta will go in? And not that slobbery drunk idiot for a mentor?" I ask.

"Peeta wouldn't let Katniss go in like that. And Haymitch didn't have much of an adversary. While we know that you, Clove, personally haunt Katniss in her nightmares."

"Good to know."

"You will get to cut Peeta and Katniss up as much as you want. After the games, we know for sure that there will be rebellion. Using you to oppress the districts would bring a quick end to the rebellion."

I bite back the need to point out the loop holes. Those loop holes will save my life some day and I know it.

"Now that Cato is awake, you will begin training with the country's top experts. And in exchange you will get your freedom. A future in whatever district you choose. Even District Twelve, if you're stupid enough to pick that district." He says. "Now, I must go."

**A/N So, plot line moving along. I'm personally excited. Cato's awake and the Quarter Quells coming up soon. It's been boring lately, I know. But, hang in there and R&R. I promise there's gonna me some action soon.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

After Snow had left, we sat in silence for Panem knows how long.

"You know what I just realized?" Glimmer speaks up.

We turn to her. "All of us, except for Clove, were killed by Everdean."

Everyone then turns to me. "Our job isn't just to scare her." I say slowly. "It's a whole fucking guilt trip."

"I don't envy her." Cato says shivering.

"If I had a nickel for every person I've killed." I begin. "I'd be richer than the President."

Marvel and Glimmer glance at me with carefully concealed shock. Cato didn't even look slightly surprised.

"Old news." He says bored.

I slap him in the chest as hard as possible.

Ignoring the throbbing in my hand I smirk. "Cato, you really need to work out, you're getting soft."

He glares at me and I can't help but laugh. He looks away and for show, I look at my hand and contort my face into pain. Marvel and Glimmer laugh at me and when Cato turns back to me I return my face to normal and drop my hand. This makes District One laugh harder.

"I guess it's a good thing we'll be training. Right Cato?" I ask innocently.

He cracks a smile and pokes me in the stomach. "Hey!" I say.

"Why didn't we see this side of you in the arena?" Marvel asks incredulously.

"We were trying not to panic." Cato says ignoring the other boy and continuing to torture me by poking my cheek.

"Stop!" I say swatting his hand.

"You're fun to bother!"

I catch his wrist and in one swift move hit him in the face with his own hand. "Cato! Why'd you hit yourself?" I ask.

"That's it!" He says and we both stand up at the same time.

He lunges. I dodge to the side but he catches my shoulder and we go tumbling to the ground. He's using his brute force and weight against me.

I use my speed to duck and weave from his hold. I duck out of his headlock and put him in an arm lock. He twists out and grabs my shoulder. I kick at his arm and he grabs my foot. I jump up and twist my feet knocking his hand off my other foot with one swift kick. We land on the ground and he pins me.

I have to think quickly. I lunge at his shirt and pull him down. I crush his lips to mine. He's caught completely off guard. This is my chance. I kick him off of me and pin him to the ground my knees on his shoulders and his wrists beneath my feet.

"Fuck." He says simply.

"No thanks." I say smirking. "You got distracted, Cato."

He at least had the decency to look ashamed. "I know."

I smirk. "Dead." I say loud and clear.

I get off of Cato and help him up.

"Well that was…" Glimmer trails off looking shocked. "Interesting?"

"Glad we could entertain you." I say and Cato and I both give a theatrical bow.

"Well, Clove." Cato says sitting down on the couch. "That was _okay_."

"Soft." I say.

"Rusty." He spits.

"Mouse."

"Kitten."

I have nothing to say to that one. So I settle for swearing loudly and punching him in the chest.

"Oh you wanna go?"

"Come at me."

"Bring it."

Glimmer's laughing at this point. That's about when I notice Marvel's gone.

"Where's Marv?"

Glimmer looks around and shrugs. "His room maybe?"

I pale only slightly. But, Cato notices. He signals me to tell him later and I know I won't get out of it. No matter how smart I am.

The day drags on for forever. I'm getting so bored. With nothing but bothering my fellow roommates or should I say _cellmates_. And even that's getting boring. I'm ready to start training.

Finally, Glimmer decides to go to bed.

"So, Clove, what's up with Marvel?"

I sigh. "He fell for me." I then proceed to explain everything to Cato. He looks angry for a second when I explain the kiss but he doesn't say a word after. "Cato, don't get mad." I say quietly.

He sighs. "I know, just…" He stops. "I guess I'm kinda jealous. You didn't slap him like you did with me."

"Oh no I slapped him yesterday. But that's because of something else. Did you know that I don't like to be held down and force fed roast chicken?" I say smirking.

"You don't say?" Cato says smiling. "I missed you, Clove. When you died. It hurt."

I trace the scar on his throat in response. "I hate what happened. What they did to you."

I know that it sounds like suicide to say that. But, the Capitol Creeps won't know if I meant the Game makers or Everdean and her fan boy.

But, I know he understands.

"I do too. They'll pay, Clove. Soon." He says quietly.

The double meanings make me want to laugh. "I want the war to be over soon. We'll be free." And I can tell by the flickers of understanding in his eyes that he agrees.

We're at least on the same page. Neither of us wants to fight for the capitol.

Nine months later finds the Career pack sitting around the television, watching the Reaping.

Gloss, Cashmere, Enobaria, Brutus. "Funny, they mentored us." I say smirking. "Grand job they did."

"Good Riddance." Marvel spits.

"Okay guys, pay attention. See? Look! District Three, both the rebel victors are picked, just like Snow said. Pay attention to who the rebels are so that we can target them easily in the arena." Cato says.

Mags volunteers for Annie Cresta.

"That's interesting." Glimmer says. "A rebel volunteering for a rebel's lover."

"Cresta's crazy anyway, it's no fun if they don't fight." I say.

"Did you see the look on ODair's face?" Marvel says snorting. "Pure panic."

"I can relate." Cato says shrugging. "It hurts."

"Mags' games," I say. "Now that was cool."

"Yeah in training we had to study her games. Incredible." Cato nods.

"District Five, Six, and nothing special. Bloodbath victims." Glimmer says waving them off.

"Johanna Mason, now those games were memorable." I say. "Weakling and then she kicked _ass."_

"And then there's Blight."

"Didn't he win because he was the best at hiding?" Marvel asks.

"Yeah, then cheap shot at the final two." I answer.

"Ouch, Cecelia." Cato says shaking his head.

"District Nine, Ten," I say. "Chaff, Seeder, more rebels. Oh! Here we go, District Twelve."

We all lean in to watch. "Everdean, Haymitch?" I say. "Fan Boy volunteers. Nice. Looks like we're getting our revenge Careers."

They applaud.

The next week goes by, without much surprise. We knew that Peeta was going to pull something. I seriously doubted that Everdean was pregnant anyway. Either way, I'm not going to kill her. I owe her.

Snow visits again.

"As you see, the rebels have been reaped. They're planning something. What? We don't know." Snow continues on and on. I zone out after awhile.

After he leaves, we sit in the central room. The energy in the room is high.

"Well, we're about to go back into the arena." Cato says. My heart starts pounding.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

We're on the chase. The second day of the games and the man from District Ten is our unlucky victim. His little friend though is insane. She must think she's some kind of wolf or something?

Either way she's howling like a mad woman and smiling a smile that really creeps me out.

As the group of crazy, dead, tributes run through the rainforest I smile.

The woman, Angie, lunges and brings him down. To my disgust, she sinks her teeth into the poor man's shoulder.

"Gross." I say. Then I pull the ax from my belt and swing it down on his arm. Angie is snarling and Cato hacks at him as well.

We chop off his arms and legs laughing the entire time. His blood is everywhere. I could see the bones in his arm. Suddenly a spear flings from the sky and impales Angie.

On instinct The Careers and I fling ourselves back. We run away as fast as possible.

"Cato!" I call over to him. "Anybody else on your watch?"

He checks his watch. The watch tracks anybody within the six o'clock sector.

"No,"

I swear loudly and run back towards the tallest tree in the sector, the rest of the Careers in tow.

There are only seven tributes left when we get back.

The only sane one left looks up at us. "He dead?" he asks.

"Yep." I say sitting down next to him.

"When I get my hands on that little mouse, I swear imma gonna kill her."

"Who?"

"Johanna Mason. My District Partner. She deserves it. Imma gonna kill her."

I nod. There's a ding that sounds throughout the sector and we are all sucked into the ground.

The Careers and I are beamed into a plain grey room with a single door. We walk through the door and find ourselves in the living room of our living quarters.

Cato collapses into an armchair and I sit on the arm. Marvel and Glimmer then collapse into the couch.

"Turn on the games." Glimmer says to Marvel shaking his shoulder obnoxiously.

"Alright, alright, calm down." He said laughing.

We watch the reruns of the day. I watch the reactions of the victors carefully as the faces of Cashmere, Gloss, Wiress, Mags, the woman from District Five, Blight, and finally Ten Man that I helped kill earlier.

I'm surprised to find that Johanna Mason didn't react in the slightest to the face of her District Partner. Finnick looked about ready to cry when Mags appeared. Understandable.

What surprised me the most, though, was Enobaria's reaction. She wasn't on the list of rebels.

"Enobaria." I say leaning forward.

The Careers follow suit and watch carefully. "Her eyes." Cato says quietly.

"Look!" I say sharply pausing the recap. "See? Right there. She's upset. And look at the face in the sky. Wiress. If Wiress was a rebel, and from District Three no less, then Enobaria has to be a rebel too. She's obviously not upset over the loss of a fellow victor she's upset about some plans that she had gone wrong. She's more angry than sad. Don't you see?"

"Brutus isn't in on it." Marvel said. "So the rebels left now are, Johanna, Finnick, Peeta, Katniss, Beetee, and…"

"Chaff." Cato finishes.

"Let's get some rest." I say after a moment of silence. "We have to go back at six."

The next day is absolute chaos. Katniss, Finnick, and Beetee broke out of the arena.

On the bright side, the capitol caught Johanna, Peeta, and Enobaria. Marvel and Glimmer were shocked at what they were seeing, and to be honest I was too, but I hide it well.

Cato looks at me and I could tell that he wanted to escape too. "Soon." I say sharply. "We'll get her soon."

He smiles wickedly confirming that he understood what I meant.

"The other tributes have been terminated." Snow says to us. "Along with several other victors that may or may not have had something to do with the rebellion. Peeta is in our torture chambers. We want you to visit him. We're beginning a process called _hijacking;_ we will be inserting Tracker Jacker venom into him and showing him memories of Katniss to convince him that she is a mutt bent on killing him." Glimmer winces at this but the rest of us show no emotion. "You four, were especially prominent in his games and you could cause a lot of bad memories to the front of his mind. Reinforcing our hijacking." He says. "Also you will be allowed into the capitol to help rally forces from the capitol. You are the very symbol of injustice that Katniss caused." He says and without a note of farewell he disappears through the door connected to the rest of the world.

"Well when you put it that way, there's no way I can argue with you." Cato says to the shut door.

I scoff and roll my eyes. "I'm going training. Anyone want to come along?"

"No way in Panem am I going to miss out on one of your fights with Sarg." Cato says hopping up.

"Yep, Sergeant Sarcasm vs. Sergeant Scorpio. Now _that's_ entertainment." Marvel says standing up.

"Nice alliteration." I say dryly.

"Shut up." He shoots back.

"Hey," Glimmer cuts in. "Save it for Sarg."

I hang my head in mock shame and walk through the third door that leads to the training center.

"Hey Sarg!" I call from across the room.

A handsome young man turns around. He has dark hair that spikes up and piercing golden eyes. Obviously a Capitol guy, although he doesn't look like a rainbow vomited on him, there is still the capitol trade mark accent. He has tattoos on his neck and arms but they make him look tougher and somehow more masculine.

That doesn't come close to describing the rest of the trainers. When we first met the others they lined up and they looked literally like a box of human sized crayons.

When Sarg turns around he immediately sighs and rolls his eyes. "Hi Clove."

"You wanna fight today?" I ask excitedly. I must look like a puppy wanting to play because it looks to me like I ruined his day.

He sighs. "Alright Clove."

I lunge at him with no warning. I'm rather proud at catching him off guard. He recovers quickly and attempts to twist me into an arm lock. I twist out and grab a nearby knife from the wall.

Being in the capitol does have its perks. For example, I can use real weapons without worrying about killing anyone.

I stab the arm that catches me in a head lock and twirl it around my fingers, ready to lash out.

He grabs a sword from the wall. I smirk. "I guess I brought a knife to a sword fight."

With the bad puns and semi-funny jokes out of the way I fake a lunge and twist to the left. He meets my knife with his sword when he parries my attack. Using the brief instance of imbalance I swing my leg out and he falls to the ground. I kick the sword from his hands and pin him to the ground pushing my knife to his throat.

"Dead," I say loudly and clearly.

There's applause and I smirk. I stand up helping the bleeding Sarg up.

"Had your fun?" He snarls.

"Someone's a sore loser."

"Someone's a snarky bi-"

"Hey Sarg!" Cato cuts him off. "You should get that patched up!"

"Yeah, you wouldn't want to bleed to death would you?" I say smirking even wider.

Grumbling under his breath he retreats to the hospital in the right wing of the training center.

"I don't think he likes me."

"You don't say?" Cato says slinging his arm around my shoulders and walking towards the spear throwing trainer. Or as I like to call him Mr. Orange Crayon.

**A/N Okay, so a little action there, and some rebellion too. I hope ya'll aren't getting bored. Anyway, R&R they make me smile!**

**~Mickey**


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

"Did I miss something in one of Snow's speeches or?" I ask. We're currently watching District Twelve burn to the ground.

The rest of The Careers are sitting dumbstruck around the television. We watch silently as a boy, barely eighteen, leads a group of miners to pull down the fence.

"No way!" I shout causing everyone to jump. "That's Everdean's cousin!"

Sounds of recognition come from the people around me. There are shots of little kids screaming for their mothers and women rolling on the ground trying to douse the flames and nothing works. We see the Justice Building Collapse to the ground, with people in it. Men are running like ants towards the downed fence. People are passed out in the streets some are burnt carcasses.

"This is harsh." Cato says closing his eyes and shaking his head.

"The bakery." Marvel says as we see flames gush from the windows. "Fan Boy's family."

"Dead." I say quietly as if it were a wrestling match between me and Cato.

"I'm going for a run around the capitol." I say abruptly. "Come with me." I say in a voice that leaves no room for argument.

Obediently they do what I ask and follow me out the door. I pick up my belt of weapons, and they follow suit.

I sweep out the door and I jog down the street in my usual route. The Careers next to me.

"Alright guys, I'm tired of this Glitter City. Let's bolt." I say as we reach the woods.

Cato smiles despite his eyes darting back and forth.

Suddenly out of nowhere Peacekeepers appear to arrest us. Before the first one can pull out his gun there is a knife sticking from his throat. He trips and falls to the ground tripping the other Peacekeepers behind him.

Dashing in I get too close for them to effectively use their guns. Growing up in District Two, where the Peacekeepers are trained, I know everything about their armor and their weapons, as well as procedure and how they're trained to fight.

They're screwed and everyone knows it.

While Cato covers my back for the split second it takes for me to steal the downed Peacekeeper, Marvel and Glimmer join the chaos.

I come up from the ground and elbow the nearest Peacekeeper in the face and before he hits the ground I have his gun in my other hand.

It's simple math really. Me, plus two guns, plus one _hell_ of a temper, equals unstoppable.

I shoot off three rounds each from the guns and there are at least five down. Six more to go.

My fellow Careers follow my example and swoop in for the guns of the fallen while another covers for them when the small army of Peacekeepers are dead on the ground I steal extra rounds and dash into the forest. Cato is pounding next to me and I can hear Marvel and Glimmer behind me.

We come to a huge electric fence.

"Fuck!" Cato shouts.

"Cover me!" I shout as another squad comes crashing through the forest.

I Pick up a rock and throw it as hard as I can at one of the electric boxes to my right. There is a shower of sparks and the entire box falls to the ground.

There's gun fire, and I know Cato has my back. I trust him and I know that as long as he's alive I won't get anywhere close to being touched by a bullet.

I pick up a twig and throw it at the fence. Nothing. I shout in triumph and pull my hatchet from my belt. I hack at the fence.

I finally hack a big enough hole to crawl through. "Come on!" I scream.

Glimmer turns first and crawls through the hole. Then Marvel and finally, Cato.

"Run!" Cato screams.

I lead them randomly through the forest in a Zig-Zag fashion dashing behind trees. I could hear distant shouts to cut the wire and open the fence.

We sprint as fast as we can through the forest. As the adrenaline wears off it becomes harder and harder to run. But I refuse to stop knowing that the longer and farther we run the safer we'll be.

I see a tree with roots that create a hole beneath the trunk.

"Come on." I gasp. We slide into the hole and wheeze.

"Oh shit. _Shit. _Clove." Glimmer says. "I'm shot."

She reveals her side. A bullet hole straight through her hip.

Marvel immediately takes his shirt off and begins to press onto her side. Her face is contorted into pain.

"Marvel we don't have enough time for this." Cato says. He takes off his shirt as well and wraps it around Glimmer's wound with Marvel's shirt as a pad.

I poke my head out of our shelter and look around. "Ladies and Gentlemen. Let the Seventy-sixth Hunger Games, begin!" I say.

"May the odds, be ever in your favor." The others mumble.

I duck back in. "Can you walk?"

Glimmer nods painfully.

"We have to put as much space between us and the other tributes- I mean, the capitol." I say shaking my head at my mistake.

Cato smiles sadly. "Come on. Let's get moving."

"Where are we going anyway?" Marvel says his arms still around Glimmer. "What's going on?"

It hits me suddenly. These two people who one year ago I was plotting to kill followed me blindly through a forest at break neck speeds. They fought through a small army of Peacekeepers, got shot, and are following me without any real understanding of what is going on.

"Listen, I don't know about you. But I think it's horrible that Snow is treating the Districts this way. He burnt down an entire district for Panem's sake! And I refuse to join their side of the war! I am going to fight against the capitol. Even if that means joining Everdean and her Fan Boy. District Thirteen exists and we all know that. So, I'm going to District Thirteen. How about you?"

Cato scoots over to me. "I'm coming with you."

"I know that, we've been waiting for the right moment for months."

"Well, Clove. You've got guts. I'm coming with you." Glimmer gasps.

"So am I."

"Good, I don't have to kill any of you."

They laugh. Cato pokes his head out and looks around. "Clear, come on."

We quickly return back to the most dangerous place we have ever been. The wilderness.

We stop to rest more often than I would have liked so that Glimmer could catch her breath. Hiding in fox holes tree roots and cliff overhangs.

I lead my pack towards the mountains.

"Okay guys." I whisper. "Once we're on the mountains we're exposed. So I'm gonna try to lead us through the valleys. And for safety we should travel at night. We need to find water, soon."

"Clove," Cato says. "its summer, the mountain peaks are gonna be melting. Landslides."

"Now or never." I say shrugging. "We're in for the long run. Let's find a place for camp. _Find water._"

"You're in charge Sarg." Marvel says saluting me.

"Bite me." I say flipping my hair and walking on.

We come to a cave in a cliff of rocks.

"Judging by the sun, it's about six o'clock." Cato points out. "We need to hunt, get water, and figure out our plan for this little mission."

"We should travel in the dark." Marvel says.

"Yeah it's harder for the hovercrafts to see us." Glimmer pipes up.

"And it's not likely that the capitol Peacekeepers will want to come out looking for four run away teenagers." I finish. "They think we won't last very long anyway. There's a desert out that way. Over the mountains. It's going to be rough walking. Glimmer's hurt. That'll slow us down. We have to be careful. We should follow the stars."

Everyone nods. I guess I'm in charge. We crawl into the cave to take stock of what we have. We each have about a half of a water canteen left. Water's a priority.

None of us have eaten since early this morning. Food's important. Tell me something I don't know. We have plenty of weapons as well as five guns with three extra rounds.

"Clove, that was incredible back there you know." Cato said jabbing a thumb towards the west. "You must've killed at least half of em."

"Don't even get us started on the fence thing." Glimmer says weakly.

"Here, let's check your wound Twinkle." I say scooting over to Glimmer.

"No, go hunt with Cato, scout out water and stuff. Besides your utter shit at Healing." Marvel says waving me away.

"This is true." I say and I squirm out of the cave. The entrance is only about three feet wide and two feet tall.

Cato follows me with his spears. I drop my swords and my own spears. Next to Marvel.

"Don't start a fire." I say before turning and walking away.

"I'm serious, Clove, that was amazing. You really are good at improvising. Instinct, you know?"

He caught me around the waist and pinned me against a tree. "It wasn't anything special Cato."

He, as usual, ignores me and brings his lips to mine. "Cato," I say softly when we finally break apart gasping for air. "We can't do this now. We need water or we're dead by tomorrow."

He sighs. "I know, Clove. It's the first time we've been alone, _truly_ alone. Doesn't it feel great?"

I smile. "We're gonna win this war if it kills me." I say. "Again."

He frowns at me. For a moment he looks like the wild Cato I saw in the games. "It won't kill you."

"It's a sayi-"

"It _won't_." He growls.

I look up at him defiantly. "Come on Cato. We need to get some water. Glimmer needs to clean her cut before it gets infected."

We stalk through the forest quietly.

I hear rushing water slapping against the rocks long before we find the stream.

"Water!" Cato gasps. He runs to the edge of the stream and thrusts his hands into the water. He makes loud slurping sounds.

"Shut up Cato!" I whisper. "You'll scare off game."

He smiles sheepishly at me and continues drinking the water. I walk to the edge and fill my water bottle. I pull out Glimmer and Marvel's bottles to fill up. I splash water on my face and drink my fill before I stand and look at Cato.

"We're gonna need some things before we can keep moving."

"Like?"

"Backpacks to carry food and extra water. A way to help Glimmer. Her wound is really going to get infected if we're not careful. We might want to weave ourselves some hammocks for sleeping in the forest. If not, at least a hammock for Glimmer. Bugs and infection. We're going to need something to keep the sun off of you and Marvel's backs. You don't have shirts." I point out. "It's going to take days for us to get this stuff together. But, if we're willing to be risky, we can stop by District Two and I'll go to my water tower and gather what we need."

"No, you'll get killed. We're going to have to live off the land." Cato says looking at me. "Going to District Thirteen is our best choice and the further we are from the capitol the better off we are. Clove, if it were just you and I, we could make it over the mountains in a day. But, Glimmer's hurt and neither of District One know anything about mountains. We might not be able to get over them any faster than a week. Clove, you know this better than I do. With inexperienced traveler's we don't have the ability to do anything special and I'm not letting you risk yourself without me. We need to think through our every move. At twilight we'll light a fire and make jerky with whatever we catch now, but we need to rest so that we can keep going throughout the night."

"I know." I say moping. "It was just a thought."

**A/N Longer chapter this time, and they're outta the capitol! Finally! Also, 4 reviews? Come on guys! You can do better than this! Tell me what you think. Flames, Concrit****, Whatever! JUST TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK! It's bugging me. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. R&R!**

**~Mickey**


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

I scramble up another huge boulder. Marvel follows me with Glimmer hanging onto his arm for dear life. She's really weak. This is bad. Cato is behind them to help them if they can't climb up. This kind of thing for most of us in District Two came naturally.

After all when you spend most of your days throwing rocks at Peacekeepers you tend to spend a lot of time away from the village.

I can't help but smile at my memories.

It's around midnight and I'm climbing another _fucking_ mountain. At midnight. Oh but there's more! The capitol's out to get me! After all, life isn't fun unless there's a possibility that you don't wake up the next morning.

It get's tiring after awhile.

I guess I'm just cranky or I'm one sick bitch because I had this really odd urge to push someone off the mountain.

So, to suppress this urge I imagine the way I plan on killing Snow, just like a normal nineteen year old girl. Eh, maybe not normal, per say.

Point is I'm pretty irritated.

We pause to rest on a flat boulder a little too exposed for my liking. But hey, where's the fun in hiding?

Oh right, that crazy little thing called life. I think I'll go with that one.

We continue moving throughout the mountains. Finally we see the beginnings of dawn. We find a niche in the rocks to settle down in. We sip our water and eat a hasty meal of wild boar jerky. And soon we're all out unconscious.

I wake up once midday to find Cato waking as well. It's like we're in the arena again. We expect something to pop up and kill us. Which in all honesty it might, but, we're safe-ish. Kinda. Not really.

It's unnerving though. Not to have a run in with the capitol in all of this time.

Cato notices I'm awake and we climb out of the niche and three yards away is the spring that we had been following all night.

We sit by the stream looking at the horizon. "It's quiet." He says. I can tell he's been feeling the same way as me.

"Yeah," I say. "I think they're trying to give us a false sense of security. And then when we least expect it they'll attack us. We'll have no defense against them and we'll all die and never get to see the end of this war or a lick of freedom." I say gloomily.

"Depressed much?" He asks looking at me with an ironic smile.

"It's just; it's a three month hike from here, plus, an injured person. It's more than likely that we'll get caught." I say voicing my real thoughts for the first time. "I don't know what I was thinking running away. Now there's no chance we'll get out of this if we get caught."

He pulled me into a hug. "It's not your fault if we get caught. I will never blame you if we die. We were supposed to be dead a long time ago. Now, we're just living our lives to the fullest. Clove, don't blame yourself. Besides, nothing's happened yet."

"Yet," I say. "And Glimmer's been shot."

"I know. But that definitely wasn't your fault. She followed you remember?"

I nod and he pulls me closer.

Suddenly we here the chirp of a Mockingjay, that gives away the presence of a hovercraft.

Cato and I are up in a flash and we dive into the crevice quickly. We wake up Marvel and Glimmer with hands over their mouths to keep them quiet.

I crawl to the top to watch. The hovercraft appears out of nowhere. I watch as a door at the bottom opens and lowers something to the ground. A uniformed Peacekeeper goes down with the object. Something happens on the ground and the Peacekeeper is dragged back into the hovercraft.

"What is that?" I whisper.

"No clue." Cato whispers. "I'm going to check."

"Not without me!" I whisper and grab his wrist. He brushes me off with ease. He leaps out of the crevice his spear in hand and I watch as he disappears behind a pile of rocks.

"Clove," Marvel begins. I brush him off as easily as Cato did to me and jump out of the niche.

I hear a loud blood chilling roar echoes off the rocks. It's coming from where Cato had just gone. I pull my knife from my belt and ran to the pile of rocks.

Instead of going behind the rocks like Cato did, I climbed over them like Everdean did in the trees. I'm at the top of the rocks and I look down.

That is one _huge _ass mountain lion. Cato has his spear out in front of him in a defensive stance as he circles the puma.

The lion looks at me with his grey eyes. They look like Everdean's. He snarls at me. Cato spares a glance at me.

And it nearly costs him his life.

"Cato!" I shout just as the lion pounces on him.

He turns back to the lion and ducks. The lion bowls him onto his back but the force of the lion causes it to over shoot and he crashes into the rocks I'm on top of. I feel the rumble of the rocks as the force of the massive mutt hits the base. I immediately scramble down as fast as I can.

Only one of the rocks fall off but, it nearly hits me. It shatters at the bottom and I pull my sword from my belt. Cato rolls away from the lion's second pounce.

He has the tip of his spear up and he thrusts the spear up. The lion bats it away.

I pick up a palm sized rock from the shattered pile and throw it as hard as I can at the lion. It hits him in the back of the head and he turns.

"Clove, get out of here!" Cato shouts as the lion advances toward me.

This lion is huge. It's twice the size of the normal pumas we see in District Two. Its pitch black and its eyes pulsate with hate.

Yep, it's a mutt.

I set my sword in a defensive stance much like Cato's.

Once it's within reach and about to pounce I slash my sword out towards its face. I manage to give it a huge gash on his nose.

In the long run, I'm screwed. But I'm proud that I got it so angry. It's one of my many talents.

It flashes its fangs at me. Then with a quick swipe of its paw knocks me to the ground. I scramble backwards and get back to my feet.

Cato jabs at its side with his spear. "Get out of here, Clove."

"No!" I shout over the lion's roars.

Cato's swearing was drowned out by the lion.

He's really starting to get in the way. I start to pull out my gun when Cato screams. "No, Clove! They're probably waiting for gun fire to come in and get us!"

I growl. This is seriously getting on my nerves. Granted it doesn't take much to make it on my kill list, but, this lion is at the top. Right next to, Snow.

I whip the knife out of my belt and fling it at the lion. It lodges deep into its shoulder blade.

It screamed and turned to me. Cato jabbed it again. Finally with a blood-curdling roar it lunges at Cato. Cato brings up his spear tip as the lion falls on him.

I can see the spear head poking out the back of the lion.

"Cato!" I shout as I scramble over to the lion. I push on it as hard as I can and I'm able to roll it off of him.

Cato's got this huge gash going down from his eyebrow to his cheekbone right over his left eye. He opens his eyes in shock.

"Did I just kill it?"

I look at the lion and back at him. I nod. "Dead,"

I crawl over to his head. I rip off most of the fabric covering my stomach from my shirt to use as a rag.

I press it to his face. "Why didn't you run?" He says obviously agitated.

"Why didn't you?"

"I asked you first, Clove."

"Maybe it's because you didn't run. I won't run if you don't." I say wiping blood from his eye.

He looked angry again. "Hey, don't get angry with me Cato. I'm not the one who ran out in a hurry to meet this thing."

"All you've ever done in your whole life, Clove, is taken risks. I'm sick of it! You're going to get yourself killed! Again! Do you know how horrible I felt when I thought I'd lost you? Has that ever crossed your mind? That maybe I actually care about you? And you throw yourself out there! One day you're not going to win this fight." He says his eyes hardening. "And it's going to destroy me completely."

I'm momentarily speechless. But, as usual, it doesn't last long. "I don't try Cato. I'm trying to get out of here so that I don't have to attack wild animals or fight off packs of mutts or murder innocent children. One day, I won't have to take risks and nearly get myself killed over and over again. I'm trying to find a better life, Cato. I know you understand that."

He stares at me. He opens his mouth as if to say something but decides against it. He gets up off the ground and walks over to the lion.

"Looks like, we have dinner."

I know now that this conversation is over.

**A/N Aight, so drama, a good fight, and some sarcasm. Gotta love it. Anyway, Thanks to all who favorite or alerted my story and to those who reviewed. Ya'll know us authors can't get enough of those, so, please. REVIEW.**

**~Mickey**


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

I'm curled up in a ball in the corner of our little cave. I'm desperately trying to sleep but I can't get what Cato said out of my head.

"_I'm sick of it…" _

Those four words echo around my numb skull like a rubber ball.

"… _Sick…_"

_Yes sick, that's what I am._

I can hear the snoring of the others and I feel alone and secluded. Cato and I have fights all the time. So why is this one any different?

My thoughts turn from Cato to what my brother said to me the day before he died when I was telling him about a fight between me and Cato.

"_Clove, you're pushing him away, you should try holding your side of the friendship for once."_

He had said it so calmly, as if, I'd gotten angry at Claudia and tried to kill her, again.

My thoughts spiraled on and on. My thoughts swam from my extremely ditsy sister, to Keagan, to mother, back to Cato, and then repeat.

I feel so fucking depressed. I don't know what's going on. But, it's really affecting me.

Maybe it's the impossibility of the task ahead, or I miss the capitol beds, all I know is that I'm either angry or depressed, _all the time._

I don't know when I manage to fall asleep but, when I wake up its Marvel shaking me awake.

"Come on, Clove, its sundown."

"Alright," I mumble blinking a few times.

I sit up and look around tiredly. Cato is standing up looking around the crevice.

I crawl over to Glimmer and I shake her up. "Hey sparkle." I whisper quietly. "Time to get up."

She slowly opened her eyes. "What's wrong Clove?" She said quietly.

"Nothing. What makes you think something's wrong?" I said faking a smile.

"It's written all over your face."

I shake my head making eye contact. With one look she knows not to continue.

Cato disappears into the night and I follow. I have a knife ready for throwing and I look around suspiciously.

I pocket my knife and walk over to the wall of rock we were to cross.

Cato looks at me and I signal for them to follow. I climb on and on like a mountain lion would. I make risky moves such as jumping across gaps to a ledge and scrambling up on unstable rock.

It's been _hours_ since we've last rested. We just haven't had the chance to stop. Glimmer is still on her feet. Surprising.

Quite personally I'm impressed with Glimmer.

We started hiking through the snow at the peaks three hours ago. I'm fucking _cold_.

I don't even want to imagine what it's like for Cato and Marvel.

I stumble and slip. I've face planted in the snow three times already.

I'm cussing like the old men that lived at the end of the street on the bench.

"Wow, Clove, quite the vocabulary."

I'm angry by now. I throw my hands up in the air. "The best of District Two!" I snarl and continue marching on.

I heard Cato and Glimmer snickering behind me. So I must have yelled at Marvel.

Finally we reach the summit. At around dawn.

We stand there gaping at what we saw.

It was _gorgeous._ I look out and I can see all of the trees and the sun rising cast shadows on the hills and meadows. Gaps of purplish darkness dotted the forest green. We could see some of the District Two villages too.

"We have to get down." I say quietly.

"It's dawn. We'll stand out like sore thumbs on the snow." Marvel said.

"We'll freeze to death if we don't." I say.

"We'll get caught."

"If we get caught it's a quick death. Freezing takes so long." I say quietly.

To end the conversation I start off down the slope.

Sure enough they follow. It was easier going down than up and he kept going through the forest until around noon when we absolutely had to stop.

I think I'm about to explode. I could go on for hours. But, no. Marv-Marv's tired.

Oh, bite me.

I'm so sick of the tension! I'm sick of being hungry!

If it weren't for the fucking Hunger Games I'd be sleeping in my nice warm water tower!

President Snow. I shall kill him. And it will be worse than what I had planned for Everdean.

I'm gonna kill him. I'll gut him like an animal. I'll chop him to pieces. I'll feed him to his fucking wolf mutts. I'll chop the mutts to pieces. I'll hang them out to dry out of the windows of Snow's pretty little mansion. I'll personally take each and every capitol citizen captive. Then, I'll dress them up like they made us.

I'll humiliate them all.

They _will_ pay.

If it weren't for the fucking capitol I'd be throwing rocks at some peacekeepers or I'd be laughing at the people who actually went to work.

Or I'd be designing weapons.

Maybe I'd be drawing graffiti all over the village.

But, I'm not. Instead I'm marching through the woods soaked to the skin and freezing my ass off.

Life's a bitch.

Cato took a seat on a fallen log and Marvel and Glimmer collapsed at my feet. I step over them and walk calmly over to sit next to Cato.

He wraps his arm around me and rubbed my arm with his hand.

I stiffen. "What's up?" He asks me.

"Oh nothing, I'm just so happy right now!" I grumble. "The capitol is against us, we're running ourselves into the ground trying to get to District Thirteen all in the hopes of being let in. Even if we make it, we might not be let in. Oh, also, My boyfriend and I nearly got eaten yesterday by another fucking mutt! Not to mention, We're starving, cold, exhausted, and there is no such thing as safety!" I say getting louder with every word.

"Calm down Clove." Cato says simply.

"Calm down? Are you kidding me? I will _not_ calm down! We have absolutely no chance of surviving! Maybe if I were alone, I could make it. But we as a group can't! We're screwed! Not to mention! I'm bipolar or something I can't decide whether I want to burst into tears or slap your face off! Just leave me alone!" I shout not realizing when I had stood up to face Cato.

I turn on my heel and walk off into the woods. Nobody followed me.

**A/N Hey guys! Sooooooooooooo sorry. It's been awhile. I've been caught up in my original stories that I have posted on . Anyway, review pleaassseeeee? And if you want to read my original stuff you can at: .com/user/BlackenedFire19**

**~Mickey**


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

_3 months later_

I'm trudging. Like seriously trudging. I am so exhausted I feel like any minute now I'm going to collapse.

Glimmer, she's not good. Her wound was healing nicely until it got infected recently. Marvel's currently carrying her. Any day now we're going to make it to District Thirteen.

I can't believe we made it this far. Without much incident too! Insanity! I mean really? I guess they thought that we'd die of exposure or something.

We're from District One and Two. _Come on!_ Have some faith in us will ya?

We break the line of trees into a meadow. I stop and squint. Cato stops with me and puts his hand on my back.

"Is that?"

"No way!" I exclaim. "It's the Justice Building!" I shout and with renewed energy we run towards it. Marvel a bit awkwardly but he managed to keep up.

I don't know _what's_ up with that guy. He refused to let Cato carry her the entire time. For two days straight that's all he did.

We all still have our capitol weapons but I have a crudely made hatchet and Cato has a beautifully made spear he had spent days making. Marvel had a barbaric looking knife. Kinda creepy looking if you ask me.

We're about to reach the fence when soldiers popped out of nowhere surrounding us with guns. We stop short.

"We come in peace!" Cato shouts.

"We're not Aliens Cato, drop you're weapons guys." I command to my group.

Like good little puppies they do as told. I do the same. "You mind if we talk to whoever's in charge? I'm Clove this is Cato and Marvel, we have an injured person her name is Glimmer and we're from the districts." I say to the head soldier fellow.

Fellow? Who says that anymore? What the fuck?

"What do you want?"

"To not die." I say cheekily.

"Someone get Coin."

We wait impatiently for several minutes when out comes a woman with absolutely perfect gray hair. She looks seriously creepy. Not a single split end.

I envy her.

"Your names?"

"Clove, Glimmer, Cato and Marvel." I say pointing to each person in turn.

Her eyes mirror shock for only a moment. I don't understand why until she asks. "From the Seventy-Fourth Hunger Games? Aren't you four dead?"

"Obviously not. The sick Capitol Crayons brought us back. We escaped so that we could come and help you. We know secrets. We genuinely want to help. Believe me it's not the capitol sending us to infiltrate you. You can tell because why would we have hand made weapons if they dropped us off? Not to mention Glimmer's got an infected bullet wound." I say boldly. I fall to my knees. "We're exhausted and sick of those bastards. We want to help. Let us help."

Then the most unexpected thing happens. I hear her before she sees us.

Katniss Everdean.

I turn around as she walks up with a burlap sack. "Gale!" Then she stops in her tracks.

Her eyes are wide and her face was white as a sheet. "No," She whispers.

I glance at Cato. "No, wait before you say anything." I say quickly. "We were brought back by the capitol. We are not here to hurt you. I swear. We won't hurt you." I fall to my knees in front of her. "We saw the District burning down on television." I'm whispering now. "I saw the kids, and the women and the men, I saw their faces. I saw Him." I say pointing at Gale. "I saw it all, and that was the day we ran away. We hiked here for three months. Now, because you are obviously the leader here, we beg you to let us in. The capitol will kill us again if they catch us. Glimmer's hurt, and I personally beg you to let us in. Nickel here won't let us in." I say jabbing a thumb at Coin.

She looks momentarily speechless. At this point all three of us are on our knees and Glimmer is unconscious on the ground.

"Please, we owe you." I say quietly.

At this some color comes back to her cheeks but she looks definitely frightened. Gale takes two steps toward Cato and kicks him in the face. Cato falls onto his back. He gets up but he doesn't attack back.

"Why don't you hate me?" She whispers.

I look her straight in the eyes and then glance at Cato. She looks shocked. Why wouldn't she be? "Him?"

"Mercy." I say. "Something we never had. Snow wanted us to help torture Peeta. We didn't get the chance to visit him before we bolted." I say blankly. "He's being hijacked. His brain is being messed with by Tracker Jacker venom. We know how to get in and out; we can help you break him out."

"I'll give each of you a job. In exchange for your safety and care you will serve us as body guards." I stand up and whip around to find Coin standing there with a hint of irritation.

"Cato, you'll guard Soldier Hawthorne here. Marvel you will guard Peeta when he gets back. Clove, I want you to guard Soldier Everdean."

"What!" Both of us shout at the same time.

"She'll kill me!" We chorus. "Are you trying to put me in the hospital?" We continue at the same time.

"That's creepy!" I say taking several steps away from her.

"Here's the catch." Coin continued as if nothing had happened. "If you fail to protect them you will die."

It's my turn to pale. Slavery, again. Great just great.

I look at Everdean. I stretch out my hand to shake hers. She winces, but shakes my hand anyway.

She's kinda awkward. Huh, strange.

The gates open and we are led into an elevator. It feels so claustrophobic. We're taken down and sideways several floors. The Careers are led to the hospital. Katniss follows. Why is she following us?

"Why are you following us?" I ask maybe a bit rudely.

"My sister works there with my mother." She says quietly.

"Oh right, Prim? Cute kid." I say freely.

She looks taken aback but she nods anyway.

"You're lucky," I say quietly. "Your family is alive and safe."

"Where's yours?" She said curiously.

"Dead." I say shrugging. "I'd make the perfect victor wouldn't I? Nothing worth living for. That's why you won Everdean. You were desperate."

She looks speechless. "I didn't want to kill anyone."

"Neither did I. Nobody blames you Everdean." I say shrugging. "You did what you had to. Only one of us was coming out. Or, two. You and Peeta made it. Cato and I, not so much. We're all out now though. So I don't see why I need to hurt you."

"But, but, I got you killed! I killed all of them!"

"So?"

She stopped talking abruptly. I smirk. "So what's this place like?"

"Prison." She said dully.

I smile, the smile turns into a chuckle and I find myself laughing along with Everdean. "I wonder why that is?" I say. "The tattoos on your arm? Kinda weird, the whole we're underground thing and the notorious District Thirteen rep couldn't have been enough of an indicator."

"You noticed this?" She asks holding up her arm.

"Well yeah," I say. "What did you expect Bird Brain?" I ask smirking.

She looks offended but then again, when did I ever care?

"I don't know."

We make it to the hospital and Glimmer is rushed off to a room. Cato Marvel and I are greeted by a thirteen year old girl with blond hair and pretty blue eyes.

Primrose Everdean.

"Hey Prim." Katniss says.

She looks at us Careers with recognition and shock on her face.

"The capitol." I say simply.

She nods and gets right down to work. Now this is one cool kiddo.

**A/N Not my best chapter. Also I skipped three months because I wanted to get to the meat of the story. I'm trying to stay on par when it comes to Katniss but to be honest, I hated her character in the original books. I'll probably unconsciously make her more likable to me, but, I also know that lots of people absolutely LOVED Katniss. I just hate main characters in general. Yes, I'm a weirdo. Anyway, Review please! And thanks to everyone who faved or alerted or reviewed! Love ya! SO SORRY GUYS I HAD TECH DIFFICULTIES.  
**

**~Mickey**


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

You know, Everdean is not all that bad. Antisocial and kinda creepy but not bad. She enjoys skipping out on school and work.

Lazy, but again, not bad.

She enjoys hiding in closets, so I end up sitting outside the door twiddling my thumbs and doing everything in my power to keep from memories coming back.

I have to share a room with the Everdean's. They're not bad. Especially Prim. Now that kid is awesome. She's so funny and sweet.

I can't believe it. I _hate_ kids. But Prim is freaking cool. Like the sister I wish I had.

But Cato and Gale hate each other and they have to be practically attached at the hip. Prez Nickel really needs to chill.

Ms. Feathers and I get along pretty well. She really hates my little nicknames but she can get over that.

I'm excited though. We both got a whole five hours of sleep this week! Unheard of!

Between her nightmares about the Games and my reoccurring nightmares about the wolves both of us are filled with guilt. It's so awkward. I'm the cause of her nightmares and she's the cause of mine.

Talk about irony.

Prim tells me that it's awkward because we're both incapable of apologizing because we wouldn't actually mean them. I told her that she hit it on the nose.

"Hey! Singer Pigeon! Get outta the closet! Let's go to this class! I wanna see how stupid the teacher is!"

I hear a chuckle through the door. "You would Clove."

"And I do! So come on! It's not like you actually have to do anything!"

"No!"

"It'll get your mind off the Muffin Man!"

I hear a thump which was probably her forehead hitting the door in some sort of face-palm, door style.

I wanna be just like her when I grow up.

"Okay!" She said groaning. She opened the door scowling.

"Ah!" I fake scream. "I'm blinded!"

"Quit it."

I stop and smirk at her. She's obviously trying not to smile. "Don't you dare smile." I say. What does she do? She cracks a smile. "Filthy little traitor."

She laughs at that and I drag her by the wrist to the classroom next door.

"Oh hey! Look! It's Cato! And two empty seats! Oh! And see that? That's called a chalkboard." I say pointing things out to her like I would a toddler.

"Shut up."

I sit in the empty seat next to Katniss. I'm cracking jokes and flirting with the guys around us mostly to make Katniss uncomfortable when I see something that makes me stuff my fist in my mouth to keep from screaming.

I duck under the table.

"What's goin on Clove?" Katniss asks.

"I'm not here!" I whisper-shout at her cutting my finger across my throat.

I was too late.

"Clover! No! It-It can't be!" I hear high pitched squealing.

"Fuck."

I get out from under the table to look at the mirror image of myself.

"So you're alive then?" We say at exactly the same time. She said it excitedly and I say it bitterly.

Everdean looked shocked and confused.

Claudia pulls me into a bone crushing hug that I try to squirm out of. "Get off of me!" I shout. I was muffled by her cheeriness though.

EW, sunshine. "Clover! It's been so long! I thought you died in the Games! How did you get here? I missed you so much!"

I shrug her off of me and glare at her. "I hate you."

"I love you too! Wow! You haven't changed much have you?"

"I did not mean that as a compliment."

"Remember all those times you and I played together?"

"Remember when I made you that special rope necklace? I told you to put it on and I would tug on the excess rope until it was nice a snug. Then, Mother freaked out?"

"Yes I remember that!"

"That was a noose. I was trying to kill you."

"You didn't mean it though."

"Hey Katniss do you have some rope on you?"

"No, sorry."

"Aw, you wanna get back to old times?"

"No I want to hurt you."

"You don't mean that Clover."

"You," I say. "Are," I pause. "An Idiot."

"I love you too!" She squeals as she hugs me.

I look at Katniss. "Does she hear me at all?"

She shrugs. "I missed you!"

"No you didn't" I say coldly. "Get off of me. Never touch me again, and don't ever talk to me again." I shove her off of me. I slap her across the face and stalk back to my seat.

"Clover! That hurt me!"

"I HATE YOU!" I shout at her from across the room.

The teacher walks into the room.

"Clover! We loved you so much! Where's Keagan?"

"He's dead you bitch!" I shout throwing a book across the room at her face. She ducks just in time. Cato grabs me from around the waist as I claw trying to get at her. "You left me! You left me in that dump! You killed him! You killed Keagan! I had to live in the water tower!" I'm hysterical at this point. "You and Mother left me there! Like an unwanted dog! I hate you! I want to kill you! You deserve to die! I hate you! I was nearly starved! I was in the Hunger Games because of you! I died because of you!"

I'm satisfied to see her upset face. "You always had anger issues. Poor girl, I thought you'd changed." She says.

Something snaps and I roar trying to get at her. My vision tunnels and at the end of the tunnel is her face. For a horrifying minute I'm afraid that I had dyed again but then my vision comes back and Cato is dragging me out of the room and down the hallway.

Katniss follows us. She silently walks down after us. I'm still screaming profanities that would make Johanna Mason cringe in fear.

Cato knows exactly what to do. He opens a closet door shoves me in and locks the door. I could hear them sit down outside the door.

I shout and I scream and I claw at the door. In my haze of anger I clam my fist into a crate. The crate breaks apart and pencils go flying out I drive my foot into a box of cleaning supplies. I turn and throw myself at the door.

I see a mirror in the back. I can see myself in the reflection and I hate how much I look like me. I snarl and shatter it with my fist.

It was the blood that calmed me.

Blood. So fascinating. How it can mean life and death at the same time. How it saved Cato's life and took Marvel's. The red sheen. Mesmerizing. I watch it ooze from my cuts. I pick out a piece of glass from my hand. More blood flows from the incision. I look at the glass. Half of it was covered in the beautiful red liquid the other was shiny and clear and clean.

To think that this liquid was the star of my nightmares is hard for me to think about right now. I sit on the floor gazing at my hand. The blood is dripping down my arm now. It made me feel so powerful when I was younger. When it was someone else's. But back then, when it was my own I felt small and weak. But now, now, I feel powerful but humbled. I feel so incredibly human yet, so incredibly strong. Because I can bleed.

I pick all of the glass out one by one. Every tiny splinter of glass. My hand bled so much more freely down my arm. I feel dizzy now.

It feels amazing. I'm light-headed and I look back at my life. Smiling at my childhood pranks on Cato. Throwing rocks at peacekeepers and playing with Keagan. Then, I remember Keagan's death. How I told them I would be reaped for the seventy fourth if they rigged it. I saw the look on Cato's face when he saw me become the female tribute. I remember me sitting on top of a smaller brunette with a braid down her back and her defiant gray eyes staring up at me as I maliciously press the tip of my knife to her mouth.

Then, I see the tall dark skinned boy with the huge rock standing over me. I see myself tearing at Cato's throat with the claws of a wolf mutt. I see myself wasting away by Cato's side. I feel everything again. I remember watching District Twelve burn to the ground. I remember the fight between us and the peacekeepers.

My vision blackens at the edges slowly. Finally, I pass out in a small pool of my blood.

**A/N Okay, So tech Difficulties made me mess up the last chapter, so I'm giving you this one early. It's someone's birthday out there so I guess it can be considered a birthday present for that random person. Happy B-day whoever you are! Review please?**

**~Mickey**


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

I wake blinded by hospital lights.

What's up with me and hospitals? Did I die again? I groan and sit up.

Suddenly I feel the life of me being squeezed out by a tall boy that I know to be Cato. "Cato, what happened?"

"I locked you in the closet and you smashed a mirror and your hand got all bloody and I didn't open the door until you had passed out the doctors thought you might die from the blood loss." He said all in one breathe.

"Cato, can you let me breathe? Just a little, I know you're against that and all but I personally love air." I gasp.

"Sorry," He said smiling at me.

I look at my hand to see it wrapped in bandages. "Is mother alive?" I ask trying to sound indifferent and probably failing miserably.

Cato nods. "They were kinda upset. Tried to visit you but Katniss and I got them to go away."

"Katniss?"

"She's not bad."

I snort in laughter. "That's what I thought. How's Glimmer? Is she walking yet?"

"Yeah, she's still got a little nausea but we think it's because of the medication reacting to the trace amounts of Venom and capitol remedies."

"What in Panem does that mean?"

"Well when the capitol doctors brought her back they had to get rid of the Venom. You know those leaves we had to use to get the stings to heal? They extracted the healing vitamins in the leaves and mixed them with their own medicine. When the Thirteen doctors tried to heal her infection their medicines reacted with the other chemicals. She's coherent now though."

I nod. "I was worried about her."

"She's gonna heal."

Just then Katniss and Gale come into the room.

"I'm just saying they could at least try to rescue him!" She snarled.

"I'm saying that we're trying! But, Coin doesn't want to risk her soldiers in a break in."

I watch them argue before I finally speak up. "Anyone ever thought about sending us in? We know the place, we've been trained our whole lives and we're pretty dispensable."

Gale and Katniss both turn to me. Gale looks completely shocked. "Why would you care?"

"Why don't you?" I counter. "Is it because he's the Muffin Man? I got news for you. He's almost more important than Katniss. She's the Mockingjay, but he's the reason that she pulled out the berries. He dies, and then everyone knows that Katniss was one, faking it, and two, they'll realize how weak she is. Not to offend you Katniss but, she's just a gutsy teenage girl who can't decide between two boys. If Peeta dies, she's broken. Peeta won't die, but, we need to rescue him before he's irreparable."

Gale looks at me. We both know that I'm right. Without him the Mockingjay's wings are clipped.

"I don't have any power here."

"You have more power than any of us." Cato says.

"Cato and I are from the capitol's lapdogs. They don't trust us. Katniss, she's mentally unstable. She's the Mockingjay and nothing more than a symbol. But, Gale, you got all those people out of a coal coated burning District. You did something more important than us. You are able to go out onto the field. We aren't. Cato and I could but we're not trustworthy." I say standing up and rolling my shoulders back.

"I wanna get outta here." Cato says. He looks at Gale who is now looking at me with respect.

"C'mon lets go plan us a rescue mission." I say leading the way out the door.

When we arrive at Head Quarters we barge in as if we owned the place. I walk straight up to a chair and sit down.

"So, when are we going after Dough Boy?" I say sharply.

Plutarch looks at me strangely. "We haven't planned that."

"Well, let's plan it now."

"You don't have-"

"I don't care." I say glaring at Boggs. "I don't have clearance to live here but I still do."

I grab a piece of paper on the table and a pencil from Plutarch's creepy assistant's hand and began to sketch the holding compound.

When I'm finished I show them. "Here's where Peeta's cell is. This Mason's, this is Cresta's." I point out. "This is the exit. Here are all of the cameras and these are the peacekeeper posts. Do you think we can go for it? You know _in this lifetime?"_ I growl.

Everdean is sent off to some class or work session and we're told to stay. So, we sit for hours discussing the break in.

Everdean comes back and I smile at her. "We can get him out."

She smiles brightly.

"Okay! Who's going to volunteer?" Plutarch calls.

Gale is the first to step up. Several other soldiers that I didn't bother to learn the names of stepped forward.

"Any more?"

"I'll go." I say stepping forward.

"No, Clove." Cato says dangerously.

"I'm going. They won't trust us if we don't go." I say looking at Marvel.

"I'll go too."

"Then I'm going with you." Cato says stepping up to me and putting his arms around my waist.

I nod and turn back to Plutarch. "Great!" He exclaims.

We have gone over this stupid plan a _million_ times. It's not a bad plan; I'm just tired of it.

I walk down the hallway towards the cafeteria when a pair of strong arms envelope me from behind. On hand clamped down on my mouth and the other went around the waist.

"Get outta this." Cato says. I can hear his smile. I sigh.

"Cato! I don't feel like it!" I whine.

"Too bad. Have some fun. You've been stuck with Singer Pigeon for a week and a half now." He opens his mouth to say more but I elbow him in the gut grab onto his wrist and twist out pushing his face into the ground.

"Distracted, again." I say smirking. I let him up and he looks at me the smirk on his face gone.

"Cheater."

"Soft."

"Mouse."

"Kitten." I say. "I win!"

"This isn't over."

"C'mon, let's go eat something." I say taking his hand and dragging him off.

He slung his arm around me as we enter the cafeteria. We gather our food, which is frighteningly small, and walk over to Katniss and Finnick's table. Gale sat there with his little brothers and his sister.

Posy is not bad. Not as cool as Prim, but not bad. Rory and Vick are normal boys and what can I say? They're boys.

So I sit in between Cato and Gale. They glare at each other but go back to their own food and ignore each other.

"So pretty boy, what's new in your wild world?" I ask Finnick.

He smirks. "Not much, considering I'm stuck in a mental hospital."

"Ever thought of breaking out?" I ask. "Just for a night of fun?" I say smirking.

He smiles at my implication and gives me that creepy look that capitol citizens swoon over.

Yeah, I don't.

"Is that an invitation?"

"Definitely, you see people here are so stuck up; it doesn't take much to push em off the deep end."

"Are you saying I should sneak out so that you and I can go out to mess with District Thirteen people?"

"Well Cato would come along but why not?"

"I'm in."

"Me too."

"Brilliant." I say smirking evilly. "Tonight we party." I say.

**A/N Okay, so I had an awesome review yesterday! You know who you are! And it helped get rid of my writer's block. Now I have to catch up on my originals on Wattpad. So please review and I'll love ya forever!**


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14**

Cato and I sneak through the hallways towards the hospital. There we will meet Finnick and then, we're off to start some trouble. After all, there's no telling if I'll be alive to see tomorrow.

Finnick scurries out of the hospital his rope in hand.

I signal to him and we sneak down the hallway. We reach a hall with multiple doors.

I look at Cato, he winks. I look at Finnick and he smiles evilly. I nod at him and I walk over to one of the doors and start to pound on it.

Somebody I don't know answers the door and I cackle at her face slap her and run. Finnick and Cato run down the hallway pounding on all of the doors and we bolt before anyone answers.

I silently lead them to a door that has confiscated items inside. "Let's see what they got."

I put my ear to the door and slowly turn the dial. It clicks and a panel slides out asking for fingerprint identification.

I swear I'm going to go insane if I have to deal with anymore of this crap.

Cato slaps his hand down. For thirty agonizing seconds we stare at the word "Analyzing" just waiting for something bad to happen.

"Clear," An automated female voice says.

We stare at the open door for at least five minutes in shock.

I chuckle and walk in flipping the light on. I stare in shock to find mountains of _alcohol_. A fair amount of morphling and all sorts of stupid crap.

I laugh aloud as I pick up a jump rope. "What? They confiscated a jump rope?" I say incredulously. "Seriously?"

"It's rope not used for practical purposes." Cato says shrugging.

"Let me take that!" Finnick says giggling like a school girl.

"You wild thing!" I say playfully tossing him the rope.

Finnick snatches up a bottle of liquor and examines it. I continue going through the stuff with Cato. Suddenly, Finnick bursts into laughter.

"What?"

"Look at this!" He says laughing.

Cato and I walk over and read the words he's pointing to on the bottom of the bottle.

"Property of Haymitch Abernathy." Cato read aloud.

I laugh. "Typical Haymitch."

We laugh out loud for at least three minutes. I know what you're thinking; yes we are very easily amused."

Finnick pops open the bottle with his forearm, don't ask me how he does it; I don't even know, and chugs half of it in three gulps.

He laughs lightly. "It's been a long time." He says smiling.

I smirk and walk back over to the piles of useless junk. I pick up a remote control toy car.

"Most of this is useless." I sigh I turn back and something gold flashes in my vision. I walk over and pick it up.

It had little buttons and two holes on either side. It made a horn like shape on one end and it twisted it around to end the tube at the other hole.

It looks sort of familiar. Then, it clicks. "A trumpet!" I exclaim holding it up.

Cato looks from the trumpet in my hand to me several times before sighing. "This is going to be one wild night."

I laugh and saunter out of the room flicking off the lights and closing the door.

Finnick looks at me with a drunken stare. "Let's go drive some guards insane."

I smirk my trademark smirk. "I thought you'd never ask."

We saunter through the halls until we find a hall with guards patrolling them. I blow my trumpet at a not so savory note. They nearly died of heart attacks before Finnick skipped rope down the hall singing drunkenly some loud sailor song and I attempted to play the trumpet with him. Cato just stood and watched.

He burst into laughter.

"Ha! I win! That's twenty bucks!" I shout before going back to my trumpet.

We run away from the guards before they catch us.

"What did you win twenty bucks for?" Finnick asks slurring his words and stumbling.

"I bet that Cato would laugh at what I did to the guards. I won."

We turned a corner and we heard the guards footsteps fade away.

I look around not paying any attention to Cato or Finnick until Finnick skips off with his rope singing his sailor song again.

In just his underwear.

Cato bursts into nervous laughter and inches closer to me.

"I should be blind. Why aren't I blind? That's worse than the games. I'm going to have even worse nightmares now. Thank you Finnick Odair." I say quietly.

Cato bursts into real laughter now. He looks at me. "Why not?"

Next thing I know I'm marching trumpet in hand next to a drunk, half-naked Finnick Odair, and a perfectly sober, half-naked Cato Harrison.

What can I say? Story of my life. I gave up on being normal when I was born.

The next morning I got the lecture of my life. But, at the very least Cato got the lecture too.

Two minutes later we were boarding a hovercraft. Well we did after all travel thousands of miles on foot to get away from the Capitol, now we're going back.

"You ready for this?" Marvel whispers to us.

"I got us out of there once. I'll do it again." I growl.

"Who says you'll be getting outta there?" Gale asks. He's paper white and sweating nervously.

"I do." I say defiantly.

Gale looks at me admirably. Cato looks at me with a look I know all too well.

Both of us are coming out or neither of us is coming out. This is the time where I love how stubborn he can be, not.

He's getting on my nerves. On the bright side, I know he loves me! Eh, still irritates the shit outta me.

Cato and Gale, I've noticed have come to some sort of truce. I can tell Gale still doesn't like Cato for what he did, but learning that we aren't who we were portrayed to be really helped their relationship.

I still laugh when they get into fights though.

Suddenly there's a crash and then a jerk and every one of us is on their feet with guns in hand. "You have half an hour!" Someone shouts.

"Let's go!" Boggs immediately takes charge. "Clove! Your team penetrates! My team, let's move in!"

I nod and lead my team out of the hovercraft behind Boggs' team. There's a power outage and then major fighting. Lights are flashing and I'm acting on instinct. I run down to the dungeons shooting anyone in my way that isn't on my side of the war.

We come to Peeta's door in a sea of bullets. Cato kicks down the door and scoops Peeta over his shoulder. I lead them to Annie Cresta's room; she's peacefully sleeping on a cot. She looks rather healthy, someone I didn't bother to know scoops her up in his arms.

We're running out of time. Bullets are coming on thick along with other weapons. I of course, am in the thick of the fighting. A woman standing next to me goes down and I step over her body without a second thought. I'm too used to death to get upset.

I run through the sirens and flashing lights, the screaming and bullets whizzing past me don't slow me down. I can hear Cato behind me and Gale is directly next to me.

We reach the room I was dreading.

I kick down the door and we venture in. It's pure white and there are puddles of water and blood surrounding a drain in the middle of the floor. There's a bald emaciated young woman huddled unconscious in the corner.

Johanna Mason is reduced to this.

Gale scrambles over to her slipping on a puddle and scoops her up. I see her eyelids flutter and then she's out again.

I burst back into the fighting. Leading the retreat I scream for the soldiers to follow. I shoot bullets until I'm out of them. I throw my gun at a peacekeepers head and pull my handgun.

We're back outside and I see the hovercraft. Running I stop and force those with wounded, dead, or Peeta, Annie, and Johanna ahead. I'm shooting at everything in white. Cato's calling for me and I look over. Its a hundred yards away and I put my gun in my belt and bolt for the door.

The adrenaline is pumping through me as I'm half way there. I hear the engines start. Thirty more yards. They're checking for loose equipment. Twenty more yards. Everyone but Cato Gale and Marvel are getting their seatbelts on. Ten more yards. The door is about to close. Five more yards. The Hovercraft lifts off the ground about three feet. I jump and Cato catches my hand and pulls me in. The door closes and locks.

I'm on the floor panting heavily.

"Frigging Marathon." I pant.

Cato pulls me into a hug. "They're safe?"

Marvel nods. "We made it."

I look up at Gale who's looking at me in pride. "Told you."

We all laugh. "Now, off to District Rabbit Burrow." I say snuggling into Cato's chest and falling asleep.

**A/N I was going to update this today anyway, but a review made me even more eager to get this up. PEETA'S IN DISTRICT THIRTEEN! This means I can get to the fun stuff. I seriously didn't think I'd make it this far. I'm thinking of doing a Johanna/Gale story separate from this one. I love that pairing. Tell me if you think I should?**


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15**

How I managed to get out of the Capitol without getting shot beats me. Gale got shot and so did Marvel, but, Cato and I made it out without a scratch.

I walk through to the hospital and I find Katniss frantic to get to Peeta.

Peeta's been hijacked.

"No," I whisper.

Peeta wakes up and I rush over through the crowds. Peeta has her pinned to the wall his hand over her throat. His knuckles were white and his face was twisted in demented fury.

I grab the back of his shirt collar and pull him off with incredible force. I pin him to the wall. He's roaring with rage but I hold him there. He's still incredibly strong but the Capitol torture greatly diminished what he used to be, and I hold him there.

Someone stabs his arm with a needle and he's unconscious in seconds.

My muscles are aching with the strenuous force I had to use to keep Peeta in check. Still, I run over to Katniss and get someone to help me get her medical attention.

At this point I'm lying on the couch in her hospital room lazily watching them swarm her like a bunch of Tracker Jackers.

Cato walks in lazily. He lifts my feet sits down and drops them back on his lap. Eh, I don't care. "I need a nap." I say.

"You took one on the hovercraft."

"And?"

He smirks at me.

Then I remember something. "Gale got shot." I say sitting up and looking at him.

He pales. "I'm not hurt at all." He jumps up and runs off in search of Gale.

I'm pale and nervous now. Gale got hurt, it was Cato's job to protect him and Cato isn't hurt at all. This could go very wrong.

I sit there for Panem knows how long, staring at the wall above the couch.

Everdean's still unconscious and I envy her. I'm too scared to sleep. Ha! I've never known a time when I was ever safe.

I'll be safe when I'm dead.

I don't know when I pass out, but when I wake up my head is pounding. I look over at Katniss, she's just waking up. I sit up and we just stare at each other.

I can tell that she notices how miserable I look.

"Gale got shot." I say to her.

She looks confused.

"Cato didn't." I say.

Her eyes go wide. She looks like she wants to say something but her doctor told her not to speak. I put my face in my hands and sigh.

If Cato dies I will too.

"Hey Katniss! Clove!" Someone says. I don't bother to look up. It's Prim so I really don't care.

"I heard about everything that's going on." She says sitting down next to me and putting a hand on my shoulder.

I nod. I don't really want to hear any words of sympathy. "Gale's trying to help."

My head snaps up. "What?"

She smiles. "Gale's trying to help. He's arguing Cato's case right now. He's lying right to Coin's face to get her to believe that it was him roaming off and not Cato neglecting his duties."

"Really?" I say hope shining in my eyes.

She smiles and nods. "Really,"

I slump back onto the couch in relief. "I thought they hated each other."

"They do, but Gale respects you, so, he's helping Cato."

"District People need to stick together." I say quietly.

"What about District Thirteen?" Prim asks confused.

"They aren't really District People. They didn't have to compete in the games." I say grimly.

Both Katniss and my faces darken. "They don't count." Katniss rasps.

Prim gasps and immediately begins to scold Katniss and I lay down back on the couch as my ears start to bleed at the sound of her voice.

Prims just too cool for her own good.

No sign of anybody but doctors and the Everdean's for two days.

But on that third day Marvel comes in. He's smiling so I perk up and I hug him.

Glimmer bounces in with her normal cheery self and strangles me in a hug.

"Glimmer!" I say smiling. "You're alive!"

"Congrats you noticed!" she said sarcastically.

"Someone has to be observant. And you never know. I live with this one I might lose my touch." I say jabbing a thumb toward Katniss.

Yep It was rather awkward for her, I'm so proud.

Glimmer beamed at me. Reality then sinks in on me and I go back to my pale grim self. "Where's Cato? Is he alright? How did his trial go? What's happening?" I ask her in one breath.

Marvel puts a hand on my shoulder, which causes something in Glimmer's eyes. I cock my eyebrow.

She was definitely the popular girl princess in school.

My smirk says everything and she scoffs and rolls her eyes.

Jealousy sucks.

Marvel looks between us and we both smirk at him. "Girls," He mumbles. "Cato's alright, his trial was yesterday and he's not going to get killed. But, he's being punished."

"What are they doing?" I practically shout ripping myself from them. I must look like I'm about to kill someone because Katniss winces.

Ah, good times.

Glimmer backs up and Marvel cowers slightly. "I don't know." He says reminding me of the boy I knew in the Arena.

I am not happy. "They're doing something! What are they doing? Is he getting whipped?"

Katniss winces again. Well, I'm on a roll. At least _someone _understands.

"Is he in the dungeons getting tortured? Is he being starved? What are they doing?"

"We don't know Clove." Glimmer says stepping up. "All we know is that Cato isn't going to die."

I'm pacing right now. On the verge of having another one of my famous rampages. "This place is worse than the Capitol."

"No it's not Clove, you're just stressed." Glimmer said leading me to the couch and sitting next to me.

Her scar on her collarbone is especially prominent on her paler than normal skin. My fingers immediately find the scar Katniss gave me.

I look at Marvel's throat where there was another scar almost identical to mine, and I look at Katniss who gave us the scars.

My fingers go to my left wrist. I look at it.

Nothing there. I snarl the Capitol took away the one drive I had to keep me going. They took away the memories of my past and filled them with new terrors of the Games. They took away my drive and replaced it with desperation.

Glimmer is looking at my wrist with curiosity. Then it dawns on her.

Yep, the poor girl with black hair and no family didn't want to live. The girl who got a meal once every two days if she was lucky wanted to end it.

_I tried only once. I remember it was three weeks after they left and Keagan died. I had slit my wrists and I was in the water tower bleeding._

_Then, I heard his voice. Keagan spoke to me. "Don't do it Clove. You have more to live for than that. Keep fighting. Remember Cato? How would he feel? Keep going."_

_I looked around looking for him. It took him a few more minutes before I got up, bandaged my wrist in an old shirt I had 'found' and fell asleep. It was the first and last time I ever came close to giving up._

I can still hear his voice. I smirk at my wrist. Cato likes to think it was him that saved my life. We both know it wasn't but hey, the kid needs self-confidence right?

I growl and stand up. I go back to my pacing tracing the scar that was no longer there.

"It's going to be a long couple days." I sigh.

**A/N Okay! Woop woop! I'm getting reviews! Love you guys! You know who you are! This is shorter than usual but I hope you still like it. I'm sorta getting over my writer's block; unfortunately, I'm not getting over my cold. I feel like crap. And again, Johanna/Gale story, hot or not? Keep up the reviews thank you!**


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16**

Katniss is finally allowed to talk. Not that I could tell. She's a bit antisocial.

A day goes by and the door opens. We look up in anticipation. Gale and Cato walk in.

"Cato!" I shout and fling myself at him. I kiss him and begin rambling about everything. "Glimmer's out and about, I thought you were dead or in trouble. Are you okay? What did they do to you? What happened at the trial? What's going on? I'm not allowed out of here until Katniss is allowed out. I thought you were hurt Cato! Are you okay?" I say.

"I'm fine Clove," He says cutting me off. "Everything's alright. I just got a night in the dungeons they shackled me to the wall, that's it. Relax." He says smiling. "Don't hurt yourself."

I smile, slap him and go back to the couch. He doesn't look even the slightest fazed and collapses next to me.

I look at him. "So what's going on in the," I stop for dramatic effect. "Outside world?"

"No clue, I'm stuck in this rabbit hole."

"You know what I mean."

"Well Marvel's head over heels for Glimmer."

"Knew that, they visited yesterday, you'd have to be blind or Katniss not to notice."

"I heard that!" She rasps.

"Since when have I ever cared?" I call back. "Anything else?"

"Beetee's able to stay on his feet for short periods of time."

"Score,"

"Peeta can feed himself pudding."

"So happy for him, he's allowed more freedom than I am." I say sarcastically.

"Do you want to know what's going on or not?"

"Okay I'll be good." I say rolling my eyes.

"Snowflake isn't happy about the breakout." He says smirking. "He got us on camera."

I burst into laughter. "So he knows we're against him?"

Cato chuckles and nods. "Again, he is the epitome of happy."

I smile. "My pleasure."

"Coin wants a team to go to Two."

I snap my head up. "Really?" I say excitedly.

"There's a mountain we need to take and we need to get that District on our side." Gale says. "Cato and I are going. Katniss has the option to go."

I look at her like a pleading puppy. "Please?" I beg.

She looks depressed but slightly hopeful so she agrees. "Yay!" I shout jumping up and high fiving Cato.

Three weeks later and Cato and I are staring at the Nut through a window. "I can't believe we're taking the Nut. Of all places it had to be the Nut." I say.

Cato swears very loudly. "They had to pick here!"

"Bye, bye, Pops." I say creepily. "Looks like we're going to kill you." I say in a slow sing-song voice.

"Tom is in there!"

"So is dear Daddy." I say even creepier than before.

"I'm going to help kill my best friend."

"Are you afraid of fire, Pa?" I smile.

"All the great times we had! Gone down in flames!"

"Well, well, dear Pappy, do you like the sound of fireworks?" I say tilting my head.

"All because of this rebellion! It tore us apart!"

"You better run Old Man." I'm getting scary.

"I'll never get to say sorry!"

"I love you Dad, don't you love me?" I say cackling evilly. Cato jumps and his arms erupt into Goosebumps.

"You're one sick puppy." He says to me.

"He deserves it." I say smiling at the mountain. I turn and march out the door. I walk down the street and straight to the abandoned water tower. Cato follows me up the ladder and past the tattered purple curtain I had stolen.

All of the memories from before the games wash over me. I smile. "He's going to pay." I say looking at Cato.

I lay on the bed and Cato plops down next to me. "Kitten, you are just a bit creepy."

I laugh. "Yeah I know."

Gale's plan is genius. Katniss doesn't like it, but it's not like it matters. We're all Capitol creations, why not embrace it and destroy a bunch of people I may or may not know?

I'm giddy with excitement. Daddy's gonna die. Daddy's gonna die. Katniss Gale, Cato and I stand out in the town square.

Been here before. Used to have the scars to prove it. I watch as the bombs fall.

I'm pretty sure the smile on my face is seriously scaring some people. "Daddy's dead." I say my eyes flashing wildly.

Katniss looks at me with terror.

I watch as the trains filled with injured come rolling out. I'm still cackling like a crazy woman but I can't help it.

They pile out. I notice Tom. "Cato! It's Tom." I point out.

Then Katniss runs off to him. "Shit," I say running.

Instead of getting Katniss out of there, I watch her get shot. Yippee. I run through the thick of the bullets my gun in hand. I shoot down a girl I knew as Sherry. I grab a hold of Everdean. I wrap my arms around her waist and I drag her shooting and swearing all the way. Until I got to the Justice Building. I kick open the door and drag her in.

I stand at the door and brace myself as I watch every single miner die. The marble of the steps were coated in blood and the ground in front was strewn with bodies there were splatters of blood on the television screens. I saw blood running down the street like water did when it rained.

I've never imagined anything like this. To say I was scared would be an understatement.

Finally, the shooting stops. Silence falls on us. I hear pounding up the steps. Someone slips and falls. I can tell by the swearing that it was Cato.

Cato, Gale, and Marvel appear, coated in blood.

Cato pulls me into a hug. Marvel pats my back and Gale crouches down next to Katniss. He's digging around on her side where she was shot.

He chuckles and stands up. "Bullet didn't even touch her." He says holding up the bullet to show us. He tosses it over his shoulder with a scoff.

Crazy how when you're insane, things that are usually scary for normal people become funny.

Story of my life.

Cato touches my waist and it sears with pain, I gasp and look down. I chuckle. "What do you know? I got shot."

Cato looks genuinely concerned. "I'm fine Cato. It's just a bullet. We're done here; let's go back to the Rabbit Hole." I say gritting my teeth.

Gale stands up looks at me like a concerned brother would and nods.

Marvel helps Gale carry Katniss down to the hovercraft we have waiting.

When we get on people immediately rush on to see if Katniss is okay.

No one even looks at me.

I laugh; it's Claudia all over again. Except Katniss isn't my twin. Not to mention she actually is more important than me.

Cato looks about ready to kill someone. "I'll be fine Cato. It's not bad." I say biting back a gasp.

I stiffly sit down on a couch. My hands are bright crimson from holding onto my side to keep the blood from pouring out of my body. Gale disappeared with Katniss.

Yep cousin my ass.

By the time we get back to District Thirteen I'm shaky and weak and I can't stand. Cato carries me to the hospital where Prim goes into Healer mode and takes care of me.

I'm telling you if I had to decide between a Capitol doctor and that kid, I'd choose Prim.

I'm all bandaged up and ready to go to Everdean's room. I stumble slightly and make it to her room before collapsing onto the couch with Cato's help.

I'm asleep in seconds.

"You think she'll wake up this time?" I say smirking.

"She sleeps like the dead."

"You'd think she'd feel pain by now."

"It's not like she needs it." Johanna says smirking at me.

"I just want to be able to tease her, I get lonely."

"How do you think I feel?"

"Well you have your shrink to talk to."

Johanna laughs. She unplugs Everdean's morphling supply from her arm just as her eyes flutter open.

"Ha! Told you!" I say triumphantly.

"Fine I owe you." She says grumpily.

"What's going on?" Katniss asks sleepily.

"You're manning up! Congrats!" I say as Johanna sighs in relief as the morphling enters her system. She lets out a laugh.

"I'm taking your morphling; you don't seem to need it."

She ignores Johanna. "My rib." She groans.

"Yeah they took your spleen by the way. You don't need it." Johanna says in the hopes of creeping Katniss out.

"Is it broken?"

"Your spleen? We just told you they had to take it out. Of course it's broken!" I say.

"My rib!" She snaps.

"Feisty." I grumble.

"Not even!"Johanna laughs.

"Bruised?" She asks.

"Ding Ding! We have a winner! You're not as slow as I thought you were." I say.

"You're stealing my morphling." She says dully.

"We told you that five minutes ago, brainless." Johanna says. "You didn't seem to mind."

Gale and Cato walk in. "I'm pretty sure the doctors have known for awhile though." I say. "They're all pretty scared of her."

Johanna sneakily puts the morphling back into Katniss' arm quickly looking at Gale the whole time. "Your cousin though, is not. Are you, Gorgeous?" She said bumping him with her hip as she walked out.

"See ya, Clove!" She shouted laughing down the hallway.

Gale looks at us. "Terrified." He mouthed.

I laugh. "Of Jo? Why in Panem would you be scared of Jo?" I say sarcastically.

"She's crazy."

"Hello, we all are." I say.

**A/N Okay so as you can tell, I have no life whatsoever. I didn't expect to get this up today, I really should be studying for Spanish, but I like to procrastinate. So, I may or may not squeeze in another update later tonight. Also, I hope you liked the Johanna, Clove, interaction there. They're my favorite characters in the entire trilogy so, yeah. I'm a twisted creep! Woo!**


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter 17**

So Katniss flipped out about not being able to go to the Capitol. She's been there what? Twice? Way too many times in my mind.

Johanna did too. They're now trying to train and get onto the team to go to the Capitol.

So Glimmer and I are stuck in the fourteen year old classes. Pathetic.

I'm so embarrassed. "C'mon Katniss, Jo, You can run further than this." I snarl. "It's only been what four hundred feet? Pathetic. How on Earth did you two when the games?"

"Seriously, you can run better, than that." Glimmer says. "I've been in the hospital too and I'm in better shape than you two."

Neither of us is even breathless and they're panting like dogs.

One lap out and they both drop out. Since we're their guards we're forced to drop out too. I disassemble and reassemble my gun in record time. The only thing Katniss and Jo both did well in was aiming. Then, it was all four of us decimating every target, moving and otherwise.

We go back sweating and ready for a shower. Or in Jo's case, a sorta wipe down with a rag. There was a small incident and then, next thing we know, I'm roomies with Johanna, Katniss, and Glimmer.

Fuck my life.

Cato and Gale come by and visit.

Johanna and I spend our time harassing Gale and Katniss. I think Jo has a thing for Mr. Hero over there.

Katniss is blushing like wild by now and even Gorgeous has a bit of a red tint to his cheeks. Cato is having some sort of conversation with Glimmer.

"You're not bad District Two. Better than your mentors that's for sure." Johanna says to me.

"Eh, I hated Enobaria and Brutus was just an idiot." I say shrugging. "They didn't get me out."

"I hated being a mentor. I'll never forget their eyes." She whispers.

All I can think of are the mutts. "Neither can I,"

"What?"

"The mutts. That chewed up Cato? They were based off the tributes. The one that left that scar on Cato was mine."

"Sucks. My District partner hated my guts."

"I know I met him. Kept calling you a mouse." I say smirking.

"You met him?" She exclaims.

"Yeah. Sector Six during the Quell." I say looking at her pale face. "We were in it."

"So you cut up, Ten?"

"Yep. That was us and his crazy wolf friend. She was insane." I say cocking an eyebrow.

She looks at me weirdly. "Be grateful that I didn't know him."

I shrug. "I couldn't do anything about it."

They all nod. We all know what it's like to be forced to do something you don't want to do.

**A/N OMG I AM SO SORRY! I hit major writers block! I've also been doing school work (next week is finals week) and working on my originals. So if you can, I don't know, forgive me and give some feed back? It's also a short chapter. I'm sorry. I should be ashamed, I know.**

**~Mickey**


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter 18**

It's time for the tests. I watch Katniss walk in after they finish fixing the Block.

I pat Johanna's shoulder as I go in.

It's quiet. Extremely quiet in here. I look around my eyes darting across looking for something to shoot.

Then, I see it. The peacekeeper. I duck down behind a trashcan and aim my gun at him.

"Don't shoot." I hear the general say through my ear piece.

The absolute rage trickles into my veins as I watch him bully around a little kid. My finger itches for the trigger.

I look around. Then I notice the sniper hidden on the roof. He hadn't seen me. If I were to shoot the peacekeeper I'd have to swing out of my hiding place to shoot. But that would leave me exposed for being shot by my little friend on the roof.

I see him pull a gun and point it at the kid. The urge to kill him was so strong now. But I hold back just in time. A whirlwind of bullets kills him and the sniper saving the little kid.

I passed.

I walk out the other door to find Katniss waiting for me.

"We're going to the Capitol, Mimic Beak." I say smirking.

She smiles slightly and we walk off after our hands are stamped with some numbers.

We practically run for HQ.

I am more than happy to push over my sister on the way. I pushed her right into Mom too.

"Peace out Claudia!" I shout over my shoulder. Katniss smirks.

I dodge a man and continue running down the halls.

Finally we make it to HQ and we're ushered inside. They tell us about the deal with the Propos, which _no one_ likes. Especially not me.

When they explain what the streets contained, with all of the little traps and whatnot, everyone who had ever been in the Arena pales. We all saw it. Finnick, Katniss, Cato, Marvel, all of us see it.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, let the seventy sixth Hunger Games begin." Katniss and Finnick mumble in unison.

"May the odds be ever in your favor." I say.

Cato tucks his arm around my shoulders. I grip his hand hanging from my shoulder with mine.

"Here we go." Marvel whispers from beside us.

We're let out and everyone is still shocked from our little epiphany.

Cato and I are clinging to each other as all five of us walk down the hall. I stop dead.

"Marvel, if you're guarding Peeta, why were you here?"

Everyone turns to Marvel. He looks guilty. "Glim's got double duty. I'm going with you guys and Glimmer's staying. She's guarding Peeta and Jo. Jo's in the hospital though,"

"What?" Katniss asks. "We need to go then."

We all jog over to see Johanna.

"Here, you guys go in first I'll stay out here for the first shift." I volunteer.

One of us has to stay out to guard the others, and I'm usually the last to guard so, I'll shake things up a little.

I sit in the lobby as crowds of people walk by me. I catch small snippets of conversations.

All of them are completely and utterly boring.

But I listen anyway. Until something catches my attention.

"Primrose Everdean," A man says to his companion. Both are obviously soldiers and rather high up on the totem pole.

Immediately I start to listen carefully. Neither notices me.

The older one grabs a hold of the other's arm firmly and turns him to face him. "You have to convince her. If she doesn't then the plan is out."

"Why do we have to kill her? She's a little girl she doesn't deserve this."

"Yes, but if she dies then the rebels will get sympathy. It's all Hawthorne's and Beetee's plan. The girl rushes in and then she dies. We frame the Capitol and then that's the downfall of the Capitol. Everyone loves the Everdean's."

I keep my jaw from dropping in shock.

"I've done what I can. It's up to her now."

I freeze. I watch them stiffly as they walk away. As soon as they were out of sight I bolt around the corner jumping around doctors and nurses until I see the little girl I needed desperately to talk to.

"Prim! Prim!" I shout as I skid to a halt in front of her. "Listen to me Prim, if they come to you saying you need to go to the Capitol don't do it just don't do it okay you could get hurt!" I say so rapidly it nearly makes me dizzy.

"Slow down Clove," She says cocking an eyebrow. I've been around this kid way too much. "I already decided that I'm going."

"What?" I say my eyes growing wide. "No! You can't Prim you could get hurt and I'm not letting you get hurt."

"First, since when did you care? Second, it's not your decision."

Since, my brother tried to do the same thing. "Because I just do! And they're gonna kill you." I say panicked.

"They are not going to kill me. Why would they?"

"Because you're an Everdean and they want sympathy. Frame the Capitol. Beat them at their own game and Katniss and your mother would be crushed and they won't care! They're as bad as the capitol." I whisper ranted to her. "I'm rambling but still! It's the truth."

She looks at me like I've gone off the deep end. "Clove, I'm going to help our cause. Nothing can stop me."

"No! You can't!"

"I can, and I will. Now, I have a patient suffering from steam burns. He's in a lot of pain. Goodbye Clove."

I watch in despair as she rushes off.

This can_not_ be happening. "Oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no." I say pacing back and forth in the lobby practically pulling my hair out. "No, no, no, no, no!"

"Clove, what's wrong?" Cato asks me wrapping his arms around my waist effectively stopping my pacing.

"Nothing Cato, I'm not even sure. It's hard to explain."

"If you want to talk you know where to find me." He whispers into my ear before resting his chin on my shoulder.

"I know." I say smiling slightly. "I'm gonna go see Jo okay?"

"Go for it." He says smiling at me reassuringly.

I walk back into Johanna's room. She looks exhausted and scared out of her mind.

"Hey Jo." I say smiling at her. I sit down in one of the chairs beside her bed and prop my feet on the bedside table. "How's it going?"

"Terrible. The bastards nearly drowned me." She growls.

"They're as bad as the Capitol. Ruthless." I look around to make sure we're alone. "Listen Jo, I need you to do something for me. For Katniss. For the Everdean's."

"Oh?" She says bitterly. "I'm done with the slavery."

"Get over it Jo. The girl, Prim? Cute little kid? She's going to die. They want her to become a nurse and be the first on the scene. _You have to stop her_. She's going to die. They want to kill her. Like in Gale's plan." I say leaning towards her. "You know the plans as well as I do."

She gulps and nods. "Alright I'll do it. I'll try."

I nod. "She'll resist. I tried to talk to her a couple minutes ago. It didn't work out well. Katniss won't be any use. Mrs. Everdean won't have the authority. It's up to her."

She nods and puts her hand over mine. She's shaky and weak.

"Gee Jo, you need to chill a little don't you think?" I say smirking.

She smiles shakily. "There's no point is there? I can't go to the Capitol. No action anymore. Haven't had good fights in forever."

"Well yeah." I say shrugging. Then I smirk. Years of getting on people's nerves pays off. "But you want some fun? Go after Gale, you've got a thing for him anyway."

She narrows her eyes at me and I smirk. "I might just do that."

I shrug. "Get a job you lazy bum."

She smirks. "Go away."

"And miss out on the horrified look on the doctor's face when he comes in to see us both sitting here? Never."

"You kid, think way too much like I do."

"What can I say? I'm better than my sister. You'd want to slap her the minute she says hello."

**A/N Hey, sorry it's late. There's a stranger in my house and I'm scared so uh, review? By the way, I hope its okay.**


	19. Chapter 19

**Chapter 19**

I watch the flames lick at the wood, turning it to charcoal. The crackle of the flame almost masks a faint foot step.

In seconds I have my gun pointed to the darkness and I've hopped over the small fire exiting the circle of warmth and feeling the cold air slowly ice my uncovered arms and face.

I hear another footstep allowing me to pinpoint their location in the dark. "Another step and you're dead."

"Drop your gun Clove it's just me, Peeta, and Glimmer." A voice says. It sounds like Peeta but I refuse to give myself a moment of vulnerability.

"Show yourself."

Peeta steps into the circle of orange light with his hands up and his palms facing me. Glimmer steps next to him.

"Wake up!" I snap at the tents around me.

There were jerks and a couple groans and everyone was up with their gun trained on Peeta.

"Why is he here?" Gale asks loudly.

"Yeah, why are you here?" Boggs asks.

"Coin sent me; she said I could be useful in the propos."

"You're gonna get us killed!" Jackson says.

"I know." Peeta says darkly avoiding Katniss' eye. "I think that's the point."

Glimmer makes eye contact with me and nods. I lower my weapon. The careers lower their weapons without being told by Boggs.

"Lower your weapons." Boggs orders the rest of the team.

Peeta sets up his tent with the help of Glimmer and Boggs. I turn to Katniss.

"You gonna be alright?"

She nods speechlessly. "C'mon go to bed Bird Beak."

"Here Clove, I'll watch, you get some sleep." Gale offers.

Bout time! "Okay," See? Look at my self control! Improvement.

I curled up outside Katniss' tent. Some smart cookie didn't pack enough tents, or jackets. I'm left out and these idiots apparently don't realize that it's cold.

I mutter something extremely offensive, yawn, and bring my knees to my chest. I don't remember falling asleep.

"Clove c'mon wake up! Clove!" I hear a voice from far away.

"Cato?" I mumble moving slower than I wanted to.

"She's alive!" He shouts behind him.

Suddenly the rumble of voices became excruciatingly loud, and then softens to normal volume. I whimper and clap my hands over my freezing ears.

I mutter a steady stream of first class language straight from the streets of District Two. Cato whips off his jacket and wraps it around me.

"I'm confused." I mumble. "No shit I'm alive."

"We thought you died." He says loudly.

"Why?"

"You were frozen, your pulse was so low we were afraid you were dead, we got you warmed up enough though."

I risk opening my eyes, to find myself in a tent with Cato and Katniss, with Gale and Marvel crouched at the tent opening.

"I almost died again?"

Cato smirks.

"No guns this time? Or, a giant lion trying to eat us? Just, cold?" I say dully.

"Giant lion?" Katniss asks amusedly. We're from the games, what a sick sense of humor.

Cato ignores her as usual. "Yeah, you're going soft Kitten."

"Not nearly as soft as you are. I can still whip ya half frozen."

He rolls his eyes and smiles at me. I sit up and realize just how small these tents are. "Can you shoot?" He asks.

"Yeah!" I say looking at him dumbfounded. "I'm cold, not impaled."

"Is that the only thing that will ever keep you from a gun?" Gale asks. "Getting impaled?"

"That or if I'm dead."

"Not on the Capitol's side and proud." Gale says walking away.

Katniss smiles. I slap her face playfully. "Dough Boy is waiting for you."

Her smile turns to a scowl. "I'm a naturally confused socially awkward seventeen year old girl!" She growls as I walk into the open. Cato bursts into laughter causing a slight blush to bloom on her cheeks as she stood beside me.

"And I'm a brilliantly sarcastic and slightly psychopathic beautiful eighteen year old girl." I say back.

"I'm Cato." Cato says. "Ah, the blush."

"It's so cute!" I say pinching her cheek in a very scary way. This makes her blush more and recoil slightly.

"C'mon soldiers! Let's get moving."

"That's right we have random items to shoot!" Marvel says loudly. He earns himself snickers, and a pat on the back from Pollux.

"Shut it Bield!"

Oh, Marvel got called by his _last _name! "Ouch, that's a scorcher!" I call across the campfire.

Marvel beams at me. I throw him a smirk. "Glad to see you're awake!"

"You too!" I say.

He laughs and walks off after Pollux. I very quickly threw on my armor that looked quite a bit like Everdean's.

Yes, I've become a henchman. Demoted I say, from popular, and loved, serial killer to a fucking _henchman_!

I grab my guns. The major, and my favorite, machine gun, another similar gun on my back, with a sword and a hatchet strapped in. I have a belt holding two handguns and my row of assorted knives, including the one I tortured Katniss with. Another hatchet on my belt and I was ready to go.

"Geez Everdean! How do you wear all this?" I say stretching my shoulders as I walk with Katniss and Cato towards the area where Marvel had disappeared to.

We find ourselves in a street. Boggs had explained where all the mines were last night, so we just start shooting once the cameras roll.

I smile when I shoot a window with my hand gun. I empty my clip in all of the windows of that house. A dog howls in pain and I laugh. "I hit something!"

"Poor dog," Glimmer says shaking her head.

"Eh, dinner." Katniss shrugs.

I laugh. "Now that was good." With another cackle I take out a mine. But instead of a swarm of hornets, it was something much worse, and scarier.

I was the first to react. "Everdean!" I shout I grab her wrist and shove her towards a door. "Get inside!" I turn to see the giant wave of tar swell to thirty feet.

Peeta goes wild. He picks up Steve-or-something and throws him several feet right into another trap. He gets hoisted into a net much like Finnick's games.

I shout for them to come with us. "Don't move Mitch! It's barbed wire!" Gale shouts.

I turn back to Katniss and shove her into the house. "Stay down!" I shout and she seems dazed by my word choice.

Without a second thought I turn out and rush back out grabbing Marvel's and Gale's wrist. "C'mon!" I shout Cato grabs Peeta in a headlock with his arm above his head so that he couldn't hurt Cato.

He drags Peeta off. The Leeg's, Pollux, Castor, Cressida, and Jackson run for their lives off towards the house I had stuffed Katniss in.

"Mitch!" I shout shoving Gale and Marvel off towards the house. "Hold on!" I shout as the wave swells even more and speeds faster. I begin to pull a knife from my belt when there was an Earth shattering explosion.

The buildings blend together and I'm lying in a pool of blood. I remember a horrible need to move. I hear shouting and moaning. Then again the moans might be mine.

Then everything became sharp reality and I jump up. I can't see Mitchell anymore and I know I better run. Cato was dragging in a bloody lump of flesh and I sprint off to the house. I can't quite make it.

I look back. The wave is way too close. I jump on a window sill and scramble up a gutter. It won't give me much time but it's the few precious seconds I need. Gale looks at me apologetically and shuts the door.

I turn to the window and try to open it. "Locked." I whisper. I grab my knife and pick the lock and shove my body into the small opening. With a snap I watch the closed window cover with black tar. I collapse at the window trying to catch my breath.

I gotta keep moving. I immediately raid the closet. I find some odd backpack looking thing and grab it. With a quick swipe of my knife, I cut off all of the weird contraptions and dump all of its contents out onto the floor.

I swipe up the backpack and onto my shoulder. I jog out of the room and into another bedroom. A teenager's room, filled with pictures of popular people celebrities and even a poster of me.

I walk to her closet. I grab out a black jumpsuit much like Katniss and Peeta's first Opening Ceremonies costumes. I stuffed that into the backpack and run out of the room and down the stairs. I hop over an emaciated cat and run into the kitchen.

There was nothing there. _Sometimes Capitol people will get scared of going hungry, so the stash things in odd places. It's never anything really useful. It'll be something like cookies; they have no ability to distinguish necessity from luxury._ Cressida's voice enters my mind. I remember her telling me about it.

I walk into the living room and switch on the television. I watch the deaths of me and the Squad.

I walk over to a vent and pop the cover with one of my stronger, duller, knives.

Several cans of soup fall into my lap. I smile eerily. I stuff all of them into my bag. I jog towards the door when I step on something with a squelch.

I look down to see the tar that had seeped in through the cracks in the door. I step of the tar and watch it pop back into place.

"Creepy." I say with a weird smile.

I walk over to the door and look through the peep hole. I see sunlight so I figure it was sorta safe. I go back to the television to see the death toll much like in the games.

Suddenly, I'm back.

"_Cato, you know what I'm going to do when we win?"_

"_What?"_

_I lay back on the ground as Cato watches me. "I'm going to live in the Victor's Village."_

"_All of us do."_

"_But, I'm going to kill Enobaria."_

_He looks at me and looks up at the sky. "Why?"_

"_Because, she didn't try. She's so cocky. She's so, Capitol."_

"_She's fake and malicious and deserves to die just like all of them."_

"_Exactly." They took my brother from me. "Then, they took my future."_

I shake my head from the thoughts and whisper to myself. "Focus, Clove."

Without hesitation I run upstairs and into a little boy's room I hoist myself up to get to the air conditioner vent. I pry the cover and catch the food that falls out.

I run back down the stairs putting the backpack on my shoulder and prying the door open. I jump up onto the tar and start trudging to the house I couldn't get to. The tar was still slowly moving in the middle of the street and soon I was trudging ankle deep in tar.

My footsteps covered as soon as I lifted my foot. I finally make it to the door. I open the door after I shove my shoulder into it three times. I hear the clicks of several guns.

"Whoa!" I say holding both my hands up to show my vulnerability.

"Prove it!" Jackson shouts.

I roll my right sleeve up to show the Mockingjay tattoo on my wrist. Suddenly I could barely breathe, and there was a large muscular boy hugging the life outta me.

I throw my backpack at Jackson's feet. "Food, an extra change of less weird clothes, they should look familiar to you, and more food, everything we'll need for a couple of days of being dead."

"We'll need more clothes than just one set."

"Well, why am I the only one who thought of raiding the houses? We don't have long! They will come burn the house down or something to prove we're dead. The middle of the street is still flowing, but if we stick to the buildings-"

"No! We can't go anywhere right now."

"Listen to her." A quiet voice says. We all look up to see a distressed Peeta. "She's right. You need to go."

"You're coming with us." I say sharply.

"No, I need to die."

"You're coming with us, damn it Mellark! You have no choice because it's either keep you alive and keep Glimmer, or let you die and kill off my best friend in the process. Not everything is about you!" I growl.

Katniss steps up to stand by Peeta with her chin up. "Back off, Clove."

"Everdean, I swear you'll be the death of me."

**A/N Okay! Guess what? I am completely and totally over my writer's block! Now the fun begins… MWAHAHAHA! Be ready, and Review please? Thank you!**


	20. Chapter 20

**Chapter 20**

I'm fuming in the corner as I down a can of tomato soup. We watch the news for anything suggesting that the rebels were struggling.

"We wait an hour and then we get moving." Katniss says looking at me. I see the glare from Jackson and send her one of my own.

She backs off and grumbles something to Castor who looks up at me. He flashes a slight smile and I nod at him.

I look over at Cato who's watching me closely. I stand up and walk over to him. "Hey," I say quietly.

He wraps his arm around me and sighs. "Twice, we thought you died today."

"But I didn't Cato." I say quietly. "I tried to save Mitch."

"I know, and I love you for that." He says pulling me closer. "I was just worried."

"Well, don't get too relieved."

He looks at me with horror in his eyes. "Clove, if anything happens to me, promise me that you'll go on."

I can see the plea in his eyes. I nod. "Promise me the same."

He hesitates, but nods in the end. We both know that the other lied, but neither of us ask.

"Okay, we should get moving." Katniss says standing.

"The security cameras are covered in tar." I say.

"We should go to the middle house." Cressida says. "There's a door to the underground system. There aren't many cameras. You have the Holo?"

"Yes." Katniss says pressing a button.

"You have no idea how to work that thing do you?" I say smirking.

Jackson looks up and sighs. She walks over to Katniss and teaches her the basics of the watch.

I look over at Marvel and Glimmer. It doesn't surprise me to see them cuddling. They're the only ones from District One in the squad not to mention the whole of District Thirteen.

I watch Marvel kiss Glimmer's forehead and help her up from the floor.

"C'mon let's get moving." I say elbowing Cato in the gut.

"Why must you hurt me?"

"All outta love," I say winking. "Besides if that hurt then we _know_ you're going soft."

He chuckles and wraps me in a bear hug to keep me from moving. "Cato!"

"Bet you can't get out."

I elbow him in the gut and grab his wrist. With a twist I duck under his arm. He smirks and follows the motion to twist out of my arm lock. He grabs both of my wrists and crosses them and pins them to my hips.

"Ah, Cato." I growl.

I hop up and kick his stomach, and his body, away from me. He smirks.

He pulls a knife. So, I pull a bigger knife. I fake to the left and kick his knife from his hand. I fake to the right and tackle him to the ground. I perch on his chest with my knees on his shoulders and his wrists by his side under my feet. I put my knife to his throat.

"Dead," I say triumphantly.

"Dude, you need to work out." Finnick says sarcastically.

"Every time!" He says sending me a smile.

"Soft,"

"Wimp,"

"Says the boy pinned to the floor."

"Get up you two! We need to go." Jackson snaps.

We groan. I stand up and help Cato to his feet.

There was applause from our fellow Careers.

"Okay, let's go." I say holstering my knife. I pull my handgun and insert a new clip. "I'm loaded."

A series of clicks lets me know everyone else was ready for an attack. I lead the way with the other Careers directly behind me.

The good thing about being in charge of the Careers is that having them on the Star Squad, it's like having a team within a team.

I walk out the door sweep my gun across in an arc. When I find that it's clear I walk into the open and across the street.

As each person walks out the door they sweep the area like I had. I check the rooftops for snipers.

I try the door, it's locked as normal, and so with a kick the door bursts open. A woman screams. I can hear her and I know she's upstairs. I run up the steps and raise my gun. I burst into the bedroom to see a woman with her little boy.

"Ah shit," I swear and shoot the mother. The little boy was about three, and crying. Katniss enters the room and looks at the little boy.

"Kill him? Don't kill him?"

"There's no one else in the house." She looks at the boy.

I snarl and shoot him too. "No point in keeping him alive, he's useless." I say shrugging.

Katniss' mouth drops open. She shuts it and walks out of the room. "No, you can't go." I stop her. "The door's in the closet."

I walk to the closet as the rest of the team storms up. Pollux comes toward the front to stand next to me as I wrench the door on the ground open.

He goes in first. The rest of the team follows quickly.

We walk through the dark. The Avoxes are spread out more because it's getting close to dark. Pollux thankfully knows where all of the security cameras are, we're able to avoid it and dodge into a control room.

"How long do we have Pollux?" Katniss asks him.

He signals to castor something and he turns to us. "Four hours, we should spend that time resting. We can't go anywhere until then." He says looking at us all.

We divide up into shifts. I sleep the first two hours before I can't anymore. I sit up in frustration. That's when I notice Pollux was still up.

I walk over to him dodging the sleeping people.

"Go to sleep Pollux, I'll take over." I say sitting next to him.

He shakes his head and looks at me as if he were trying to tell me something with his eyes.

I nod. "Can't? Nightmares?"

He nods vigorously.

"Better get used to that. Once all of this is over, whether we win or not, the scars aren't going to fade with time, they're too deep." I say the extreme optimist that I am.

He gives me a sad smile. I pat his shoulder. "Get some sleep; I'll wake you if they get too bad." I say convincingly.

He sighs, then nods and lies down next to me. I stroke his head, like I did with Cato in the games to get him to calm down, while he doses off quickly.

I watch everyone sleep as I kept watch never stopping the comforting stroking of Pollux's hair. Keagan would do the same whenever I had a nightmare about him going off to the games.

I smirk at the irony. I was always worried about him. If he went off to the games there would be no one else that loved me other than Cato, who was just a friend at the time. Mother, she loved Claudia, I was just Claudia's less appealing clone.

Sure Claudia worshipped me to a point. It was in a mocking way though.

I sigh. Enough of the pity party, it's time to focus.

Katniss began to thrash next to Gale as if she were in a nightmare. I couldn't reach her and I wasn't about to leave Pollux. So I grabbed an empty water bottle next to me and threw it across at her, hitting her smack in the face. She sits up quickly.

Score! Two points for Clove!

She looks across the room at me as I shake silently with laughter. "I should do that more often." I really should.

She scowls and moves over to sit with me.

"Sometimes, you're like having an annoying older sister."

"And vice versa."

She rolls her eyes.

"Besides you already have a sister." I point out.

"Yes but she's not annoying."

"This is true. Prim is pretty awesome for a kid." I say remembering the promise that Johanna made me.

That kid was going nowhere near the Capitol.

"Clove?"

"What?

"If I don't make it out of here, make sure my mom doesn't shut down again. Make sure Prim is okay."

"You will, because if I do but you don't, I'll die anyway. Damn Nickel thinks she's gonna be the next president. Once this war's over, I'm gonna kill her." I say shrugging. "Suicide by homicide."

Katniss looks shocked. "Why?"

"Don't you see it Katniss? District Thirteen is just as bad as the Capitol if not worse. That's the whole problem. The difference is that District Thirteen gives the illusion of being free to do what you want, but you really have absolutely no choice." I say shaking my head. "Take you for example. You got this tattoo on your arm and told to follow the schedule. You didn't. But, once you were no longer mentally disturbed or whatever, you were told to follow it and you had no choice. In the Capitol you had a choice of working or not, you just decided between starving or not."

Her eyes widen as she absorbs the information. "I didn't think of it like that."

I shrug. "Most people don't. Power's a great and terrible thing."

She nods.

That's when we heard it, the hissing. "Katnisssss."

My eyes widen. "Get up!" I shout to the rest of them. Everyone was up and ready to rumble in seconds.

I poke my head out the door. What I see is terrifying.

"If we don't get out of here," I say. "We're dead."

With that I rush out of the door everyone following me. Pollux runs beside me as these giant Lizard Mutts follow us.

I smell the roses coming from them. Disgusting, but I ignore it.

Katniss shouts directions on which tile not to step on. Castor is too late.

He's entombed in a flash of golden light. We could see him screaming but we couldn't hear him. I push Pollux forward and shove Katniss after him.

I click the safety off of my two handguns and shove Cato away.

"Clove!"

"They'll catch us, if we just run, now get out of here!" I shout at him harshly.

Marvel, Jackson, and the Leeg twins stay behind with me.

Cato hesitates. "Go!" I snarl.

He runs off and disappears around the corner.

The wave a Mutts is truly terrifying. Without thoughts or hesitations, I shoot.

I shoot the leading Mutt causing him to trip and fall, which causes a small blockage. We begin to retreat slightly before they get over their blockage.

Let the real games, begin.

I shoot as quickly as I can from my guns. The Mutts surge forward and block my line of sight to my other teammates.

I kept the Mutts at a good small circle away from me. Something happens, and I hear a loud scream that dies off quickly, followed by several screams of the Mutts beside me.

I immediately fall to the ground and watch these strange spindly darts fly over me they hit the Mutts on the other side of me. I stay down as the Mutts begin to climb over me mistaking me for dead.

Maybe, they're blind, or at least partially blind.

I shoot one of the lizards in the stomach as he crawls over me. I'm bleeding a lot from their harsh, really fucking sharp claws. He falls over dead.

Ignoring the blood spraying over me I grab the lizard and sling it over my back to help disguise myself from the others.

I drag through the surging and receding waves of Mutts until I reach a lizard munching on a hunk of meat.

"Marvel," I whisper choking back a sob. "No!"

I shout shooting the lizard between the eyes. He keels over dead.

I can't bring myself to run to Marvel.

I wipe my tears from my face and drag the lizard through the crowd. We reach a bridge across a toxic stream. I'm about to move towards the bridge when it suddenly goes up in flames.

"Shit," I growl as I look down the stream. I move the lizard to an overlooked corner where a rusting ladder stood against the wall.

I throw the lizard to the side as I wrench the ladder from the wall. I lay it across the trench and carefully walk across. I nearly lose my balance before I regain myself and jump to the edge. Another lizard finds the ladder and begins to walk across.

I kick the ladder into the pit of epic grossness and run off pulling my machine gun from my back and a knife from my jacket.

I run as fast as my feet would carry me. I'm not even sure my feet are touching the ground. I see Finnick push Gale up another rusted ladder. I pick up speed; the lizards are closing in on Finnick. He kicks one off of his foot as he scrambles for his life. Another pulls him down.

I crash into the lizard and stab it several times. It bites my arm but I pay no mind.

I'm in my zone. I'm killing again and oh the rush!

I smile as I point my gun at the lizards holding Finnick. I shoot at them knocking another away from him so that he could fight them off and scramble up the ladder.

I let several more shots ring out before I can make it towards the ladder.

A few steps up a lizard grabs me but is incapable of pulling me off as I keep an extremely tight grip. I kick him off with my other foot and bolt up the ladder collapsing on the ground.

"Nightlock, nightlock, nightlock." Katniss says into the Holo and drops it. Gale covers the manhole with the cover as we hear an explosion.

Everyone is staring at me in shock.

"Well, what are we waiting for?" I say breathlessly.

Cato looks like he wants to either, faint, or hug the life outta me.

"Not all of this is my blood." I say panting heavily. "The lizards were partially blind."

Gale's mouth was a perfect O. Finnick crashes into me hugging me and lifting me off the ground. "You saved my life!" He says loudly.

"Anything for you, Sailor." I say smirking.

He looks like a gorgeous, and rather bloody, puppy.

Gale is still shocked. Peeta and Katniss had similar reactions though they had recovered some.

Cato was next to crush me, Glimmer joins.

I pull apart and look at Glimmer. "I s-saw Marvel." I whisper.

She begins to collapse but I catch her, in time to find all of my strength leaving me. I fall to the ground with her. She hugs me and sobs into my shoulder.

"We need to go." I say harshly.

I find what little strength I have left and lead Glimmer off limping after the rest of the Star Squad.

**A/N Blechhh I am SOOOO sorry. I gave you an extra long chapter to make up the gap. See, real life, my original stories, and again real life got in the way. ON THE BRIGHTSIDE, All or almost all, my originals are updated recently and again if you want to read any of them follow the following link: user/BlackenedFire19 Also, Unfortunately, this story is soon to come to an end. I Just couldn't let Finnick die :/ Bittersweet moment.**


	21. Chapter 21

**Chapter 21**

Gale nearly faints before we get through the neighborhood that Cressida leads us through. I'm still holding up an emotionally wrecked Glimmer.

Every now and then I have to stifle her sobs to keep the Capitol residents from seeing or hearing us.

We enter a shop, with mannequins wearing furry underwear.

"That's just fucking weird." I say not realizing that I was saying it aloud.

At least not until there were several snickers from the Squad.

"Wait I said that out loud didn't I?"

This made even more people laugh. Even Katniss was fighting down a smirk.

To make the house of horrors even more fascinatingly terrifying, a tiger is eyeing me for her next meal.

I stare at it with wide eyes. It has a human face, well, not quite human. It has whiskers and cat's eyes. I wonder if it killed a cat to get them.

Poor cat.

It had stripes and fur.

I know this is the Capitol but come on! This is just ridiculous! I stare at it like I was a freak. Who am I kidding? It's a freak of nature.

I didn't even realize it was talking until we were led down into a cellar.

"She was nice." Katniss says shrugging.

"That was a she?" I ask maybe a little too loudly.

Several people again snigger into their hands before sitting down.

I sit down with Glimmer still clinging to me. "Glim, I gotta take care of my wounds." I say.

Everyone looks at me. "How can you tell which is your blood? You're literally covered from head to toe, every inch with blood." Peeta points out miserably.

"I dunno I just poke my skin until I scream in pain." I say smirking.

This causes a few smirks. Pollux doesn't even look up. He just moves to the corner and whimpers. I look over at him and sigh.

Marvel, damn it.

I bandage up my wounds and Glimmer goes back to sobbing with her head in my lap.

"I should have made him come with us." Glimmer whispers after she seems to not be able to cry anymore.

"No, you couldn't have done anything. He wouldn't have stayed behind if I hadn't, and if I hadn't, none of us would be alive." I snap.

This shut her up. "Clove?" She asks minutes later.

"Hm?"

"How did you survive?" She asks.

I look up at everyone who now were very interested in what I had to say.

"Well, at first I just shot them, which reminds me, I only have one round left in my gun. Then they surged and got past us."

"We assumed you all were dead at that point." Cato whispers, the first time he had spoken since I'd surprised them all with my fantastic escape.

I gave him a weak smile. "There were too many." I say almost as an excuse. "Somebody triggered a pod, and it popped out with poison darts, I think it was one of the Leegs. So, I dropped to the ground. What I noticed, was that the lizards just climbed over me. They didn't realize that I wasn't dead. So I knew that they probably didn't have very good eyesight. So I waited for a lizard to climb over me before I shot it, and covered myself with em. I looked, to the lizards, like another one of them. I found Marvel already dead. So, I ran off in the direction of you guys, just in time to watch the bridge explode."

Katniss paled slightly.

"So, I found a ladder and put that across the trench, dumped the lizard and walked across. A lizard tried to follow me but I pushed the ladder off the edge and ran off to find you guys. I saw Finnick get pulled off the ladder and I crashed into the lizard, stabbed it several times, and then shot off the others. And you all know the rest."

Everyone seemed fascinated.

Katniss just shakes her head. "You should've won the games."

"No," I say shaking my head. "I would have if I had looked up. But, I didn't meaning I'm completely unworthy."

She looks slightly taken aback.

"Do you think they were in pain?" Glimmer asks. "How did he die?"

"Well, I know for a fact, that one of the Leegs was in pain. She died from a poison dart and I heard them scream. Marvel, who knows how fast he died? I killed the lizard trying to eat him."

I shouldn't have said that.

Glimmer paled and sat up looking at me. "Eat him?"

I look down guiltily. I suddenly become very fascinated in the bandage around my ankle where the lizard tried to pull me down. It was throbbing and I ached all over now that the adrenaline rush was over.

Cato moved over to me and pulled me into a hug.

I don't know what happened, but the rest of my team, saw me cry for the first time in years.

I let my Careers down. One of them died.

Ironic how, in the Games, the Careers are a pack of starving wolves, bound to turn on each other, and now, we're so loyal to each other.

Cato strokes my hair and rubs my back as I sob into his chest. "I should've died." I whisper.

I can feel Cato tense and I know that he's telling me to shut up. I finally stop my weak show of emotion and wipe my eyes.

Glimmer looks terribly sad that she had to witness a break in my concrete wall.

Katniss just stares at me. Horrified. It's almost like she didn't realize that I had emotions.

Then it clicked. I didn't think about it. On instinct, I ignored any thoughts that maybe everyone but I and Cato had emotions, that they were human.

After all, it's easy to kill animals.

That was what was going through Katniss' head as I cried.

I killed these people. _People._

I look at her and she looks at me. We make eye contact and confirm each other's thoughts telepathically.

Soon everyone settled down and went to sleep. There wasn't enough water to clean me off. There was just too much blood.

So, I let the rest have it and stayed the filthy person that I am.

I really couldn't care less.

I sleep like a log for hours upon hours. When Cato finally wakes me up he tells me that the rest are upstairs watching the news.

So I jump up and follow him. I avoid eye contact with the tiger thing and keep my eyes on the screen even though it was standing next to me.

It was talking about some Capitol citizen got beaten to death because he looked like Peeta.

"Okay, one, he has red hair, two, are you sure that thing is male?" I say when they show the picture of the person.

"You have gender recognition problems don't you?" Cato asks me.

"Yeah, I'm still trying to figure you out."

Katniss winces. "Burn," Gale says smirking.

I smile triumphantly at him.

"How can you smile?" Glimmer asks. Pollux looks up obviously having wanted to ask the same thing.

"It's better to pretend everything's alright than to think everything's the end of the world."

Katniss and Peeta nod.

Finnick hugs me again in a really creepy way. I push him off. "You already got your one hug." I say growling.

"You're just so huggable." He says pinching my cheek.

"How?" I say loudly.

He stays silent for a few minutes. "You're not its just fun to make you angry."

I punch him in the chest. He jumps back and runs off towards the cellar. "I'm gonna hurt you Odair!"

The rest of the team stays upstairs looking at each other wondering what had just happened when a loud smack is heard from where Finnick and I are.

"Ow!" Finnick says.

I smirk and walk back.

"That belongs in a movie." Cressida says.

"What's a movie?" I ask going back to lean on the counter.

"Really?" Tiger lady asks.

I smirk at the perfect red hand mark on Finnick's face. He pouts and stands by Katniss.

Cressida explains to me what a movie is, I look stupid, nothing unusual, and we're all sent back down to the cellar as we plan our methods.

"I can't believe you didn't know what a movie was." Cressida says to me.

"I didn't have a television back home." I say looking at my ankle.

"It's illegal not to have one in your house."

I look shyly up at her. "I didn't have a house."

She looks shocked before I quickly walk off to harass Fishy.

"Okay, so we need to get out of here and towards Snow's mansion." Cressida says. "We can disguise ourselves using Tigris' shop."

So that's her name, well ain't that just the picture of irony.

"We shouldn't go out as one big group." I suggest looking each member of the team in the eyes. "We should wait for the evacuation scheduled for later today. They won't have any pods activated when they're evacuating citizens. So we don't need the holo, and we won't get killed by the pods."

"And she didn't know what a movie was." Gale says looking at me with a cocked eyebrow.

"I didn't have a television okay?" I say losing my patience. "Not my fault."

They look at me curiously, it seems only three people understood what I meant, not counting Cato and Glimmer.

Cressida, Gale, and Finnick. "Back to do or die people," I say rolling my eyes.

They nod. Before I know it Katniss and I shuffling along the sidewalk behind Cressida and Gale. Peeta and Glimmer had left before them, none of us trusted Peeta not to kill him, and I half didn't trust Glimmer not to kill herself.

So yep, Star Squad has gone to Suicide Club. Don't even get me started on Pollux.

We walk along until we hear a bang.

"What was that?" Katniss asks me.

Suddenly, gun shots ring out, people beside us get shot. Pain shoots through my right shoulder and I'm on the ground.

My thoughts blur and go black.

"Clove, Clove wake up!" I hear shouting from a distance.

Suddenly everything sharpens and everything is too loud. I can barely move my arm but I jump up.

Katniss looks worried. She had dragged me to the side of the buildings. "The rebels, they aren't exactly sharp shooters."

Ah fuck, I guess I got shot.

I grab her upper arm and drag her along the side. I shed my fur coat and scarf despite the cold. Katniss does the same.

We burst into a run through the panicking crowds.

"Mommy! Mommy!" A little kid shouts.

Katniss looks over at the little girl.

"No Katniss." I begin to say before Katniss begins to walk over.

I pull my new handgun that Peeta had given me and shoot her through the heart. She turns onto her face and falls.

There on her back, was a bomb.

"Katniss!" I shout dragging her away.

The bomb explodes knocking most of us to the ground. I scramble on the ground as people begin to stampede.

Katniss finds me and helps me up.

"I broke a rib." I croak to her.

She looks at me as I clutch my ribs. "I grab her upper arm and drag her off.

To make the day better, a pod goes off.

"Shit," I growl. "Just great."

As a giant patch of quicksand develops in the ground, I shove Katniss forward and run away.

Seconds later as we escape that, a giant hole tears remarkably fast through the street. I open a door in the house and shove Katniss in. I watch as people fall into the pit and land on some rather pointy rocks.

I swing out of the door and grab hold of the windowsill next to it. "Katniss!" We hear as Katniss follows me.

I scramble to stand on the sill.

There stood Gale and Cato in the house across the street. Cato looks relieved.

Then a gloved hand falls over Gale's face. They disappear into the house. "Gale!" Katniss shouts at the same time that I call Cato's name.

Katniss stares at the house in horror.

"Not now, focus!" I shout even though I really don't want to.

Cato's in there.

I grab her arm and drag her, climbing across the houses, like the monkeys in the Quarter Quell.

"I swear Everdean," I growl. "If you don't focus, I'll kill you myself, I pick up where I left off." I snap.

She looks shocked to see the Clove that she had known at first come out so quickly.

Maybe I was being too hard on her. After all she didn't make living robbing houses. But she did need to focus or neither of us are getting out of this mess.

We hear screaming, wailing, and moaning. It's torture to say the least.

We finally make it to solid ground. I grab her wrist and drag her forward. We enter the sanction of peace that is the central square, right in front of Snow's mansion.

Sectioned off in the garden of the Mansion are hundreds of kids.

Hundreds of kids.

All of them were cold and skinny, some have strange colored hair, and others have tattoos and even piercings on the older ones.

That's when the real drama started.

Silver parachutes drop down amongst the kids.

What has every kid in Panem grown up thinking what a silver parachute meant? Good things right?

Not these parachutes.

Half of the bombs went off.

Katniss and I were far enough away from the blast to just get knocked down. That's when the medics rushed onto the field.

My heart drops to my stomach when I see who was at the front.

"Prim!" Katniss shouts running off to her sister.

"Prim," I whisper my eyes wide. I rush off to Katniss, luckily being faster than her. I grab her by the braid and yank her down to the ground hard.

"Prim!" I shout. "Get out of there!"

She looks confused and begins to rush off towards me.

We're all too late. The rest of the bombs go off. I'm close enough now to get seriously hurt. I get knocked back several feet.

All I can remember is being in so much pain. Then, it just stops.

**A/N Mwahahahaha! Cliffie! Hahahaha! You didn't honestly think Prim was gonna live did ya? I wish she could, but hey, you can't have it all. Review? Lemme know what ya think?**


	22. Chapter 22

**Chapter 22**

I swear I can see Marvel. It's foggy and so bright, I blink, and it was an artificial white light that just hurt my eyes. I sit up and look around. Marvel, and Keagan, stood there looking down on me with strange looks on their faces. But I couldn't see them very good.

The fog got thicker and thicker until finally it went black.

There was this annoying beeping sound. I could hear voices in the dark. They sound familiar, one voice was decidedly male.

I could feel his hand in mine. The other voice was female, and she sounds like I know her but haven't heard her voice in a very long time.

A third voice speaks up.

I can't tell what they're saying but I know the male voice was Cato.

I lose consciousness again.

When I gain my senses again, it's still dark.

This time, there are four voices. But I can make out what they're saying.

"Claudia, she wouldn't want to wake up with you here." Cato says.

"But I'm her sister, and who are you to her?"

"Everything."

"Mom, he can't control us, you don't have to leave."

"What's the point Claudia? He's right. Why do we even deserve to be here? We did leave her."

"You two are sick." Another fourth voice, that sounded a lot like Glimmer, spat.

"I'm not leaving."

It was too loud. "Aghh," I whisper.

"Clove?" Cato says excitedly.

Why the fuck is it so dark? "It's dark." I say hoarsely. "How long have I been out?"

"About four days. It's not dark Clove," Glimmer says touching my arm.

"Yes it is my eyes are open and its pitch black."

"Get the doctor." Cato orders someone.

The doctor comes in and fires a barrage of questions.

"What the fuck do you think I say dumbass? It's black; I can't see jack shit, now stop asking me stupid questions and tell me what's wrong with me!" I shout causing someone beside me to jump.

"Typical Clove," Claudia says beside me.

I whip my hand out and punch her. I dunno where but I know it hurt.

"Clove, you've gone blind."

What? Well this is just fantastic!

"We can get a surgeon to fix your eyesight; however, it'll be about three months before we can get him here."

"Where is here exactly?" I snarl a little harshly for the innocent doctor.

"Snow's mansion." Glimmer answers.

"P-prim, what happened to her?" I ask panicky.

"She died, Clove, I don't understand why you care." My mother says.

"No!" I say burying my face into my hands.

The images begin and I learn the true horrors of being blind after the games.

I see Thresh standing above me with a giant rock in his hand.

I see the Tracker Jackers, and Glimmer twitching on the ground. I see Keagan run ahead and drop dead a bullet through his head. I see Marvel being eaten by the Lizard, and Finnick being attacked by the Lizards. I see Prim running towards us and then being blown skyward in a cloud of fire.

I see Cato get gnawed on by a pack of wolf muttations.

"Cato," I say beginning to cry. "Make it stop." I whisper.

My skin is crawling, I feel disgusting, Although I'm clean I want to scrub the disgusting Capitol dust off of me.

I know I'm covered in burns but they seemed to be able to get it to heal well enough, though from what Cato tells me I'm covered in scars.

People leave and it's just Cato and Glimmer left talking to me. They can't stop talking or I'll lose my mind to the past.

Eventually Glimmer has to leave. I don't know what happened, but when the doctor came in saying there were no more visitors allowed, Cato stood up, and then the doctor left. Cato sat back down and continued talking about my old antics.

Like throwing rocks at peacekeepers. Or breaking into the training center in town and stealing all of the weapons and hiding them around town for the people to eh, _find_.

I smile at the memories.

"Remember that time you nearly got caught, and you had to hide in the mountains for three months?" Cato says.

I smile and nod. "That was fun."

"And I begged my mom to let me go with you, but she threw a plate at you and then told you to get out."

"She was kinda smirking too though. I know she still liked me." I say with a smirk.

"She always liked you Clover," Cato says. I can hear the smile in his voice. "Just when you nearly got yourself hung she wasn't exactly happy with you."

"She thought I was a bad influence." I say smiling despite my feeling of guilt. "D'you think she's still alive?"

"I hope so." Cato says rubbing the back of my hand with his thumb.

"If she is, would you want to go back? You know, to District Two?"

He sighs. "I would want to find her, and let her know that I'm alive. But, then, I want to go to District Seven. It seems like a cool place."

I nod. "I dunno. It feels like we've already lived our lives. It feels weird to be planning for the future. To be allowed to have dreams. It's weird."

I feel him move. Maybe shift uncomfortably. He chuckles. "It does."

"What are you laughing at?"

"For a minute I forgot that you couldn't see me."

"Dumbass."

Somebody enters the room and I look towards where I think the door is.

"Katniss?" Cato says. "Shouldn't you be in your own hospital bed?"

I can hear her moving and I follow her path. She didn't answer the question.

"Is she scarred too?" I ask Cato.

"Yeah, but not as bad as you."

I nod. She touches my arm and I look over to where I think she is.

She moves my head slightly so that I'm looking at her. "I'm here." She says hoarsely.

I blush slightly. "Sorry," I whisper.

She shakes my head to say that I shouldn't worry about it.

"No," I whisper. "I'm sorry. Prim,"

She takes her hands away from my face. She seems to close up.

My emotions overwhelm me but I battle them down desperately so that I can tell her.

"I knew about the bombs." I say.

There was a deathly silence. No one moved a muscle.

"I knew that Prim was going to be there too." I choke. "I tried to stop her from going but she wouldn't listen to me. I tried Katniss. Remember what I said? District Thirteen was just as bad as Capitol? They're worse. It wasn't the Capitol that dropped those bombs. It was Coin."

The silence is so cold and the bombs play in my head on constant repeat. I try to focus.

Katniss touches my arm. "Is it true?"

I nod. "She was too stubborn. Thought I was crazy." I whisper.

She gets up and leaves.

I have no idea what's going to happen. But, once I get my sight, Coin is dead.

_Three months later._

I'm stood beside Katniss in a showy kind of way.

I'm her fucking henchman once again. I smirk at Snow, who is staring at me like a creep.

I just wanna walk over there and just taunt him.

But, they said I couldn't. Right after I got my sight, I grabbed one of my knives. Cato had to disarm me, and hold me in a bear hug.

Otherwise I would have assassinated the newest president.

Ha! I love myself.

Katniss draws back the string of her bow, and pulls it back. In a flash the arrow buries itself into Nickel's throat.

"Nice shot!" I say clapping her on the back before the other guards rush to arrest her. She's screaming at the top of her lungs as I stalk towards Snow.

He's laughing his pretty little head off. My face is inches from his as he sprays my face with his blood.

I pin his head to the pole by his neck, and with my bare hands I strangle him.

I leave him for dead, not bothering to wipe the blood from my face as I yank the arrow from Nickel's throat and laugh as I walk away.

Cato finds me in one of the halls staring at the dried blood on the arrow.

"They're looking for that you know." He says sitting down next to me.

"It's mine." I say not tearing my eyes away from it.

"I haven't seen blood in awhile. Well, not real blood, just memories of blood." I say kinda creepily. "I missed it."

He nods. "She's going under trial. You're still her guard."

I sigh. "Okay, where's she kept?"

"Training Center, twelfth."

I nod and stand up, hiding the arrow in my leather jacket. Cato escorts me to Katniss' room.

Gale and Johanna are parked outside sucking on each other's faces.

I smirk. "Eh-hem," I say clearing my throat.

They jump apart and of course blush. Gale stutters a petty excuse and leaves. I nudge Cato to go after him. Once they leave I burst into laughter.

Johanna smirks at me. "Glad you can see again." She says sneering.

I eventually stop laughing. "I knew you two would get together. Nice job." I say winking.

She rolls her eyes. I go to sit outside Katniss' door.

"Why are you here?"

"My life depends on it. I know why you were."

"Oh yeah?"

"Tall, dark, and gorgeous was here." I say sticking my tongue out at her.

She shoves me. "That's not why."

"Oh?"

She was silent. Then apparently Katniss decides to start singing. She sounds _terrible_.

"I'm going to go now." Jo says starting to get up.

"No you're not." I growl grabbing her arm and yanking her back down. "_Someone_ is going to suffer through this with me. You are the unlucky person."

She grumbles something not very nice to me and I smirk.

Katniss' voice gets a bit better as she continues to sing. Then she starts the Hanging Tree.

Bring on the guilt! Yay!

"Shit," Jo and I mutter at the same time.

"I tried to convince Prim." Jo says looking over at me after awhile.

"I did too." I say. "Nothing worked."

"It's kinda like rubbing salt on the wound don't you think?" Jo says.

"She risks herself, kills the only Katniss she knows, and still can't save her sister."

"Load of bull."

"Really is."

**A/N Two updates in one day! You love me! And if you don't, you're just jellehhh. So that, would be the end of the story :'( the epilogue should be up soon.**


	23. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

"Told you," I say looking at a very irritated Johanna.

"You're so immature."

"And you're not?"

"I'm more mature than you!"

"Ladies, ladies, please." Haymitch says throwing his arms around us drunkenly.

"Gross Haymitch, when was the last time you took a shower?" We chorus as we push him off of us.

He starts to think.

"If you have to think about it it's been too long." I say to Jo.

"What're you two talking about?" Gale asks slinging an arm over Jo's shoulders.

"Bet that smells better." I say smirking.

She looks like she wants to murder me.

"Ouch, if looks could kill."

"There'd be a crater where you're standing." Katniss says smirking at me.

We snoring, oh Haymitch. As usual we ignore him and go back to our conversations.

"So, is Cato still in the Land of Johanna?" Peeta asks with a charming smile.

I nod. "He likes it there."

"And you're not going?" Gale says taken aback.

"Glimmer needs me in District One. She's definitely better. I expect around, three or four months, then, I can go to Johanna Land."

"For the last time! It is not _my_ land." Johanna says rolling her eyes.

"Again, we know, we just like to mess with you." I say smirking.

"Clover!" A kid shouts.

A miniature Finnick runs through the door and attaches him to my leg.

"Hey Finn." I say looking down at him.

"Jo! Gale!" He shouts attaching himself to the newlyweds.

Finnick and Annie walk through. "Hi," Finnick says thoroughly worn out.

We all smirk. "Energy, I wish I had it." Peeta says introducing himself and Katniss to Finny.

They immediately take a liking to each other.

Everyone hugs them and smiles in a way that said it's nice to see you even though looking at your face is painful.

"Where's Cato?" Annie says sitting next to me.

"The Land of-"I notice Johanna giving me a look. "Trees." I say recovering myself.

She giggles at the look on Johanna's face.

"He's in Johanna Land?" Finnick asks from his conversation with Gale.

Johanna groans and rolls her eyes. "It's going to be one long ass night." She mutters to herself.

"Yeah," I say smiling.

"I thought you were in District One with Glimmer?" Annie asks keeping up the conversation.

"I am, Cato always wanted to go to Johanna Land, and I couldn't leave Glimmer, knowing she'll hurt herself. So that's what we did. Hopefully though, in a few months, I can go with him."

"Is he coming today?"

I shake my head. "No, it's just me." I say winking at Johanna who was looking woefully at Haymitch's bottle of poison.

She gives me a very impolite hand gesture and I laugh.

"Love you Jo," I say smirking.

Katniss' wedding was fantastic. Although, I'm not one for happiness and glee and whatnot. It was still kinda fun. Weird having friends just as jacked up as you are.

I met Gale's family, and I caught up with Mrs. Everdeen. Jo danced with little Finn for awhile and Finnick and I had people in stitches like old, and rather frightening, times.

Its weird how naturally, when humans find themselves in the pit of despair, they always find themselves running for the light at the end of the tunnel.

Even though the tunnel is boring and dull, or filled with new horrors at every twist and turn, we still survive and thrive.

We're like cockroaches.

**A/N The end! So my lovelies, that would be the epilogue, and I'm sad yet happy at the same time :D I kinda liked the ending there, Clove get's all deep and then comes up with "We're like cockroaches" and that's her big conclusion. Oh Clove. Review! And if you liked this story, I'm going to be starting a Johale Fanfic. In about five to ten minutes xD BUT, I hoped you like the story, thanks for all reviews and shwhatnot!**


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